Dreadnought of the Omnissiah
by Cirrikan the Technomancer
Summary: Having been returned to Mars from parallel Earth (Please Read, Adventures of a Necron Cryptek up chp 15 for context), Techmarine Vernus of the Blood Ravens Chapter, now interred within a new dreadnought chassis patterned after Parallel Earth's movie Pacific Rim, brings with him STCs to for new dreadnought bodies and titans. How will the galaxy change? Rated M for violence.
1. Chapter 1

The Holy Forge world of Mars

The homeworld of the servants of the Omnissiah.

To be permitted to go to its surface was a great honor. It was a fact that the techmarines of many Adeptus Astartes Chapters forgot, thus often for that among many other reasons that they bore the ire of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Another reason was their mostly noncommittal dedication to the Quest for Knowledge, being due to their stronger ties to their battle brothers than that of the Omnissiah. There were a few space marine chapters that did not subscribe to this stereotype such as the Iron hands, the Steel Confessors, and the Blood Ravens.

When the Ark Mechanicus _Arizona_ appeared in close proximity to Holy Forge World, it bore tech priests charged with guardianship of the ancient and revered _Mars_ pattern Baneblade and several of those with the _Collegia Titanica,_ and a dreadnought of a never before seen pattern. While the Ark Mechanicus and the small contingent of tech-priests aboard her 150 km length, fell under the careful scrutiny of many a Mechanicus ship, the dreadnought, discovered to be a Master of the Forge of the Blood Ravens Chapter, was secreted to the surface of Mars under the orders of the Fabricator General of Mars himself.

The Archmagos charged with governing Mars during the Fabricator General's numerous journeys to Terra, had sent a message to the Fabricator General, detailing what the recently-arrived Ark Mechanicus held. The Governor of Mars had left as quickly as he was able to, sending complex instructions back to Mars to make preparations, mainly to throw off the Inquisition which would be examining every vessel from afar looking for suspicious activity. The Fabricator General also noticed that the commotion had brought out the ancient Archmagos Dominus, Belisarius Cawl from either stasis or his hidden laboratories, few being able to tell which.

The other Blood Ravens that were with the dreadnought had elected to report to the Inquisition. Little doubt they would report to the Inquisition about the strange pattern of dreadnought that the Master of the Forge had been interred within which only served to have the Fabricator General expedite the dreadnought being spirited away from the Ark Mechanicus, not just for what he had become but also for what he had brought with him. Several other Archmagos had joined their growing entourage, most of them being the Fabricator general's supporters.

Steam hissed out of the eye sockets of the _Opus Machina_ embedded in the ornate doors as great mechanism clanked and whirred, parting to reveal the form of the techmarine dreadnought.

To say that what they saw before them was a work of art, would be a drastic understatement. What smoothly walked into the chamber could have very well been forged by Omnissiah. All the subtleties of ultra-precise manufacturing were there as was multi-role design of the body from the three arms with articulated fingers to the digitigrade legs with toes. Recessed into its upper chassis in a torso similar to the of an ancient _Contemptor-_ pattern dreadnought, the head resembled the helmet of the techmarine but scaled up to match the proportions of the dreadnought with a large array of optics integrated into the head.

The large right shoulder plate was decorated with the symbolism and artistically-embellished, obsidian raven with a blood red ruby in the middle all on cream-colored ivory. The other two shoulders bore the Opus Machina with a cog of polished steel highlighted with brass, the human side of the skull in ivory while the cyborg half a mixture of silver and copper. Short of those decorations, the hull of the dreadnought, red as the sands of Mars once was, was largely unadorned, a sign of its newness.

With one of it's two left arms, which were by themselves mounted on a large rotating joint allowing the arms to rotate to differing positions as need so one did not interfere with the other, the dreadnought reached into a storage container attached to its back and pulled an exceptionally large book and placed it onto one of three servitors, specifically made to carry volumes as large as the one the dreadnought placed. Soon the other two servitors were occupied by similar books.

The Fabricator General's mechadendrites twitched with anxiety as he reached for the first volume, opening the large metal cover to reveal the first page of gold lettering, in the ancient dialect from the Dark Age of Technology. His augmentics scanned page after page. It definitely was legitimate but the designs were even more thorough in terms of adaptability and modularity. Another surprise came in scalability, the constructs ranging from the dreadnought variation to nearly 80 meters, exceeding that of even the ancient Imperator-class God Machine, what was more, the designs suggested the machines, while capable of supporting armaments of the God Machine, seemed designed to move at considerably greater speeds with great agility.

The first book was the curious three-armed machine that now housed the techmarine, the second, the Gipsy Danger-pattern had a design that seemed more like a streamlined design of power armor but was very well-balanced, though less agile than the Crimson Typhoon-Pattern. The third book contained the Cherno Alpha-pattern, a heavy looking machine that had a large "head," designed as a heavy armor unit with the smaller variant bearing various auspex systems dotting the hull, to the large variant bearing a cockpit at the base of the "head." The Fabricator General-relayed this all over the local noosphere, talking to the other magos in the area. In a rare instance, they agreed; these were legitimate STCs.

This discovery was beyond phenomenal technologically, the political ramifications though were problematic. The general consensus among the Magi was that the techmarine was correct in bringing the STCs straight to them after managing to extract them from the Ark Mechanicus, the scalability meaning that the STCs will benefit almost every Division of the Adeptus Mechanicus, including the aging Ordo Reductor, whom no longer possessed means to manufacture Thallax.

However for the dreadnought variants, that remained a question as to whether all chapters should receive them. These STCs were clearly a blessing of the Omnissiah and it was a simple fact that other chapters would not respect that. It would go up for debate.

The Fabricator General turned his attention to the one whom had brought them these blessed artifacts, a techmarine whom had honored the Quest for Knowledge. The dreadnought had waited patiently while the Magi had conversed using lingua-technis encoded with hexamathical logic functions, something he doubted the techmarine was privy to.

Knowing that the Blood Ravens Master of the Forge was at the least well-versed in unencoded lingua-technis, the Fabricator General initiated unencoded dialog with the dreadnought.

 _You have contributed to the Quest for Knowledge and brought something incredible to Mars. Where other Adeptus Astartes Chapters would have hesitated, perhaps even kept it for themselves (cited example: Blood Angels), you did not. Others still would have used it to gain leverage with the Inquisition, you brought it to us. The question on our minds is: why?_ Asked the Fabricator General.

The dreadnought was silent for a moment before addressing the Fabricator General of Mars, _If we are to move forward into the future, we cannot and should not create rifts but build bridges._

 _Well said_. said the fabricator General, _Your actions, I believe, merit a reward. What would you ask of the Adeptus Mechanicus?_

Once again the dreadnought was silent as he considered the offer of the leader of the Cult Mechanicus. It was as the Necron Cryptek Cirrikan had told him. The techmarine had rescued the cryptek from the clutches of an Abominable Intelligence and the cryptek had helped forge his dreadnought body. The cryptek had managed to extract from the Ark Mechanicus _Arizona_ 's Machine Spirit the STCs and gave them to him, telling him that the combination of the Ark and the STCs would put him before the leader of the Cult Mechanicus itself.

 _I wish to petition you, as both the Leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus and a High Lord of Terra, for permission to mount an expedition into the Libraries Omnis. Said the techmarine dreadnought._

The chamber became very quiet at the request.

 _I also wish to make use of the Arizona's forge while you deliberate._ the dreadnought added.

 _You do realize that could take decades, maybe even centuries to process. Even then the answer could very well be no._ Said the Fabricator General.

 _One should not make a request, if one is not prepared for the probable outcome,_ said Vernus _._

 _I will take your request to the other High Lords of Terra,_ said the Fabricator General

The dreadnought bowed after the Adeptus Mechanicus High Lord closed the connection. With a motion that seemed as natural as any organic body, the dreadnought turned and walked out of the chamber. The doors closed behind him sealing the room once more from prying ears and eyes.

The many magi in the chamber surrounded the STC books printed out from the Ark Mechanicus, some placing their hands reverentially on the volumes. The _Collegia_ _Titanica_ were very excited to have not one but three new patterns of Titans and the challenges involved in their manufacture, though any possibility of mixing parts with the standing patterns of titans needed to be scrutinized carefully and approved. The _Legio Cybernetica_ had similar conversation in their private noospheres, especially with the possibility of generating superior parts for their ancient robots without potentially having to scrap fallen dreadnoughts. Even the normally cold members of the obscure _Ordo Reductor_ expressed strong interest in the STCs' potential to expand their diminishing Thallax ranks.

The excitement in the chamber was palpable even the most mechanized of the magi expressed an eagerness that had not been seen in centuries… maybe even a millenia! The Fabricator General leaned on his staff as his mind moved between each groups' respective noosphere. The one exception to all this exuberance was the ancient Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl, whose mechadendarites seemed to twitch in… irritation? The ancient archmagos was difficult to read but if the Fabricator General was to hazard a guess, he would speculate the sudden appearance of these blessed STCs interfered with one or more of his secret projects.

Regardless, the dreadnought had not only contributed greatly to the Quest for Knowledge that day but by asking to take part in an expedition into the _Libraries Omnis_ , something as far as any known record could indicate was never undertaken by any member of the Adeptus Astartes, the techmarine was showing initiative that he doubted either the Iron Hands or Steel Confessors could match. The irony was not lost on the Archmagos of Mars that while the Iron Hands and their successor chapters, maintained close ties with the _Mechanicus_ , the fact that they have done so very little to contribute to the Quest for Knowledge was a tacit frustration. The Iron Hands chapter and their successor chapters focused too much on depriving themselves of their flesh and blood bodies. It would seem that this day, the chapter that had _earned_ closer ties to the Mechanicus would be the Blood Ravens.

The Fabricator General had every intention of trying to fulfill the techmarine's requests. For the _Arizona_ 's forges, he would make certain that the techmarine would get everything he asked for in regards to technology, with the exception of the obvious forbidden technologies. He already contacted a magos to tutor the dreadnought on some of the more obscure lore including an update on hexamathical logic functions. He was not surprised that several of the other _Cult Mechanicus_ divisions were of similar mind in regards to the dreadnought and desired to invest in the chapter that had produced him.

The Fabricator General perused through the book containing the Crimson Typhoon-pattern. As he examined the dreadnought sized chassis, he simultaneously marvelled at the level of detail and the potential precision of the armored shell. He also noted the sheer number of slots that were empty on Vernus' dreadnought body. With a few more pieces of equipment courtesy of the Mechanicus, not only will Vernus be well-within his capabilities to resume his role as his chapter's Master of the Forge but far exceed it. As far as it was within his power, the Fabricator General of Mars would make sure he would have a Forge worthy of his title.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Several space tugs carefully maneuvered the _Arizona_ to dock with the Ring of Iron, the massive shipyards encircling the entirety of Mars. The Ark Mechanicus coordinated the firing of its maneuvering engines to manage the speed at which it moved alongside the shipyard to an ancient dock once responsible for the construction of its ilk. It was a task that took several days as mega-meters became kilometers, kilometers became meters, and meters to centimeters the massive vessel rapidly slowing as it grew closer and closer, until finally the docking clamps attached to the hull. Large spidery limbs unfurled from the dock and the other side of the dock swung into place on the other side of the Ark Mechanicus. As soon as the airlocks opened, tech priests and servitors flooded the ship with supplies, manpower, raw materials, and much needed technology for the ship's armament.

The Collegia Titanica coordinated with the Divisio Fabricator to make use of the Ark Mechanicus' large forges to begin construction of the new titans detailed in the STCs, while the Divisio Digitalis was preoccupied with the discovered "Clean room section" where cogitatiors of superior quality were manufactured. The Ark Mechanicus was beginning to feel like a proper ship of the Omnissiah. There were many oddities aboard the ship two of said oddities were found in the engine room: the main reactor and the _Arizona's_ absence of Warp Engines.

The fact that it required no fuel to power only deepened the mystery of the Ark. The absence of warp engines was was unlocked by the dreadnought techmarines explaining that the engines enabled the ship to slip into a dimension that was not the Warp but not the Webway either. Combined with the oddly accurate stellar cartography, the ship could miraculously operate without a navigator. The potential of such technology had many implications… if only the STCs for it could be unlocked as well but Vernus informed them that that was proving difficult as the _Arizona_ had clamped down on any further access to its STC database.

Additional systems surprised the tech priests, those being in the form of the automatons. The ship's basic functions required no servitors, as it depended instead on a variety of complex mechanical constructs, ranging from tiny insect-like drones to large multifunctional striders. With the utmost caution and reverence, the tech-priests disassembled all the variations, carefully examining them for possible tech-heresy. What they found in each was highly advanced modular cogitators, merging what appeared to be digital cogitators mounted into intricate yet sturdy clockwork artifices. Each automaton varied in complexity by how many modules it had to call upon for the tasks to be performed but also limited how much intelligence was allotted to each.

Each of the hundreds of millions of these constructs made up a vast network inside the Ark that account for supply, manufacturing, courier functions, maintenance, and repair as needed. The system was so complex yet so responsive to the needs of the crew and passengers, it behaved almost as an organism. Another unexpected discovery aboard was the biosphere modules filled with varying plants ranging from fruits and vegetables to herbs. As soon as said plants were ready, the harvest was collected and stored by the automatons into stasis chambers or delivered to the dining halls spread throughout the ship, while the seeds were either replanted or stored as necessary. The speculation for the need for such a system threw off the tech-priests estimations concerning the ship's age, thinking it far older, pre-dating the protein-foundries of other arks.

All these details and more were known to the techmarine dreadnought Vernus, whom the Cult Mechanicus only called upon when they when having a particular difficulty accessing systems of the Ark and were willing to swallow their pride to ask, an instance that was rare. So they mostly left the dreadnought alone in the forge. Vernus was left to his work and thoughts, his initial work beginning with forging tools appropriate to his size. One would think that due him being a dreadnought that some measure of delicacy when it came to his work would be lost and if one thought only of his main three arms, they would be right. However, the dreadnought/ titan STCs the Adeptus Mechanicus was fawning over provided a solution in the form of telescoping limbs like that of an arachnid that could be attached to the ports in his back. The limbs could be utilized for work and combat in equal measure, though long and slender, were deceptively both strong and precise.

Due to his exceptional record as the Blood Ravens Master of the Forge, Vernus was granted unilateral permission to build and adapt the new dreadnought chassis as long as he stayed within the guidelines of the STCs. That was an easy feat as between the three massive volumes alone, which were compatible with each other in terms of parts, internal components, and wargear, he had more versatility than he could ever ask for. One tool though required extensive permission as he desired a tool that clearly marked him as a follower of the Omnissiah: a dreadnought-sized Omnissian power axe.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~)

It was only a matter of time before the Inquisition came for Vernus… or at least tried. The fact that an Ark Mechanicus was strictly _Cult Mechanicus_ property meant that an Inquisitor would have to jump through a metric ton of paperwork just to get near one. The fact that the _Arizona_ was docked with the Ring of Iron meant it fell strictly under the auspices of Mars and that meant that an Inquisitor could flash his credentials till he was blue in the face and the tech-priests did not have to listen to him one iota.

It had taken 20 years… 20 YEARS since the mysterious arrival of the _Arizona_ for the Inquisition to manipulate, argue, debate with the Cult Mechanicus to get an hour with the techmarine. When it came to the Imperium, the Inquisition had unilateral authority, even over the Adeptus Astartes. However, in the case of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Inquisition was, more often than not, stonewalled in any pending investigation. As the techmarines fell firmly between the Cult Mechanicus and the Astra Militarium, the Inquisition's authority was only partial. It was through hefty wrangling that the Inquisition was able to send a single Psyker Inquisitor to interview the techmarine.

Inquisitor Pallin Seseux looked through the file provided to him about the subject in question, Techmarine Vernus. 876 years old, recruited from Meridian, sub-sector Aurelia, into the Blood Ravens Chapter. Completed training with honors, sent to Mars to train as a Techmarine. Here is where things got interesting. Unlike most techmarines which spent 30 years training in the arcane sciences of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Vernus' talents were so exceptional that he spent 50 years of training before accompanying an Explorator fleet on a 70 year mission which proved successful in no small part thanks to his efforts, he was recommended with honors from the Archmagos of the fleet for addition 20 years of training. 140 years before he was even returned to his chapter!

Once back in the Chapter, he quickly ascended through the ranks of the techmarines, noted for both his remarkable aptitude for negotiation and logistical management even more so his technical mastery that earned him the exceptionally rare title of Artificer. Served with honors for 300 years before volunteering to serve in the Deathwatch. Naturally, the 100 years he served was largely classified but an item of note was that after 80 years of service he achieved the title of Forge Master.

As for any references to the techmarine's character, even though he was a very talented and knowledgeable individual, he was also very personable, speaking eloquently and courteously, a space marine with manners. When he returned to his chapter, he brought his well-developed skills to bear in the space-bound Astartes chapter. His skills eventually granted him the rank of Master of the Forge. From what few records of their missions were made available to him, the Inquisitor saw he was not only dealing with a veteran of the forge and battlefield but also the political area. This was going to be a tough interrogation.

Regardless, the Inquisitor felt quite secure in the large chamber with the gold-highlighted obsidian banner of the Inquisition on the wall behind him and several armed guards in the form of the Space Wolves chapter, the rival of the Blood Ravens. The doors opened, heralding the arrival of the techmarine. Heavy footfall, heavier than any space marines should be, was heard as what entered the chamber suddenly changed the carefully-arranged environment of the Inquisitor.

It was a dreadnought, somehow his investigation had missed the fact that the techmarine had been interred into a dreadnought of a pattern he did not recognize. It was tall, if it extended its legs fully the Inquisitor had no doubt it would be taller than an Contemptor pattern. It's head had several lenses emerging from the knight shaped head. In one of it's hands it bore what resembled a massive Omnissian Power axe, gleaming with adamantium, brass, and gold, arcane circuitry glowing and pulsing as if alive. However unlike the traditional toothed gear that typically formed the head of the axe there was a long blade attached to the haft taking the form of a polearm axe.

Not only did the dreadnought's body bear the iconography of both his chapter and the Opus Machina but decorating his chest plating was his awards and accolades from around the Imperium. Custom rewards in lingua technis from various Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus, even from the Fabricator General himself. Accolades from several other chapters for his service in joint efforts. Then there was his Deathwatch accolades, plates inscribed by several Watch Captains.

The Space Wolves suddenly took a knee in seeming reverence of the dreadnought. The confused Inquisitor looked closely at the one of the accolades and saw one from the Space Wolves Chapter, inscribed by the Space Wolves present equivalent of Master of the Forge.

The Inquisitor realized with no small amount of horror, that by simply walking in, the techmarine dreadnought had turned the tables on him.

"Well met, brother Astartes, I have seen the work of your Iron Priests in training on Mars. It pleases me to see such excellence and dedication from such a venerated Chapter. Tell me, is Forge brother Jurgen well?" Boomed the dreadnought.

"He is well, ancient one, when he returns to the Fortress Monastery, he often speaks of the hard lessons you taught him." Replied one of the Space Wolves as they rose.  
 _What is going on here?_ The Inquisitor thought in confusion. He scanned the minds of the Space Wolves attempting to glean how this techmarine overcame the prejudice between their respective chapters.

 _A duel of the Forge? Ah… a competition built on nothing more than blood, sweat, and skill. Vernus soundly beat their Iron Priest in a fair competition during his Deathwatch service and shared a drink with them after… Surely that cannot be all?_ The Inquisitor tried to pry further in an attempt to glean information to regain control of the environment but he felt almost all their minds clamp shut and suddenly he could feel their respective hate as they came to the realization that the Inquisitor whom they had been asked to guard was a psyker.

"Speak, Inquisitor Pallin Sesuex, and let us settle this matter once and for all." Commanded the dreadnought.

With that last statement, the Inquisitor felt stripped of the last vestiges of control, reduced to nothing but a rank by age and experience.

"Where did you go after the destruction of Kronus?" Asked the Inquisitor, his mind probed the dreadnought only to find a classic barrier stopping him: lingua technis. The Inquisitor silently cursed the Cult Mechanicus, the ability to read minds was rendered moot when one could not understand the language of the thoughts. Not to mention with the layers upon layers of parallel thought-processes, the Inquisitor realized he did not have the full attention of the dreadnought.

"I know not, as I was rendered unconscious by a psychic attack while we were engaged against the forces of Farseer Taldeer. When I awoke, it was in the company of Magos Veritas and his retinue, formerly attached to Kronos Legion under Governor Militant Alexander. They had rescued and several of my battle brothers from the hands of a Necron cryptek. They had discovered a nearly complete Ark Mechanicus on the icy plains of an unknown world. My battle brothers and I saw to the both the aid in getting the Ark functional and its protection." Said the techmarine as he recounted his tale.

"It was during our vigil that the Ark was attacked by an Abominable Intelligence of an unknown Xenos origin, i was able to critically damage it before being severely injured myself. The Ark provided the dreadnought body into which I am presently interred. Once the Ark was complete, we left the world behind and set course for the Holy Forge world of Mars." The dreadnought went silent as he concluded his tale.

The Inquisitor could sense no deception from the dreadnought but it meant little when he could not make any sense of the complex mind inside. However his story largely matched that of his battle-brothers, some minor difference expected of differing perspectives.

" Did this Xenos have a name?" Asked the Inquisitor.

"I was informed his name was Cirrikan, the Technomancer." Said Vernus.

As much as he wanted to pry for more details, he doubted trying to press his authority for answers would yield nothing more than his own end, however the situation was salvageable.

The Inquisitor smiled and stood," I am honored that you took the time to speak with me, Great One, and am humbled by your presence. Go in peace, and may the Emperor's light continue to shine on you."

"Your words do me much credit, Inquisitor, you will indeed go far. Adaptation is as crucial in word as it is in deed. I look forwards to our next encounter. Fare thee well." The dreadnought turned about smoothly and walked out of the chamber. Following his departure, the Inquisitor heard the Space Wolves file out.

Once he was truly alone, Inquisitor Pallin sat back down and breathed a sigh of relief and the thought hit him, _he saw right through me! He saw me being opportunistic and lauded me for it!_

(~~~~~~~~~~~~)

It was outside of the chamber that the Space Wolves once again met with the dreadnought in question.

"Honor compels me to speak, great one." Said the leader.

"Then speak, son of Russ." The dreadnought invited as he smoothly spun on his heels to face him.

"You likely spoke of this when you served with Iron Priest Jurgen but we would once again iterate our objection to your chapter having so many Librarians and your dishonorable use of the Warp." Said the Space Wolf.

"I have little to no explanation as to why our chapter produces so many psykers but as you know well, an untrained psyker could bring death to a world, even more so one of our own. We train them to fight the ruinous powers because we know our enemies will have no reservations about using them against us. We train them to be another weapon in our arsenal and we use them, for what good is a weapon forged but never used?" said Techmarine Vernus.

"Wise words, ancient one, but even so, what honor is there is use of the such abilities?" Asked another Space Wolf.

"True it does not compare to a plain field of battle but those are often too few and too rare. What good is the swing of a sword if it does not find its mark or a bolter unaimed? Librarians add to us another dimension that allow us victory where others would find death. To use the Warp is a trap but being aware of trap means we can either avoid it, spring it under our own terms, or better yet make it into a trap for our enemies." Said Dreadnought Vernus.

The techmarine dreadnought continued," I no more like my chapter's use of the Warp than you do. I am not attempting to convince you that it is right, but it is necessary. Every chapter has their own paths to trod, full of dangers from without and within, as you know too well. At the end of the day, we are all ultimately sons of the Emperor that makes you my brothers and I would proudly fight at your side." Said the Dreadnought.

The Space wolves nodded among each other. The Captain called out," HAIL VERNUS, THE FORGEMASTER!"  
"HAIL VERNUS." the others called out.

With nothing left to say, the dreadnought nodded and strode to leave the Inquisitorial ship.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Vernus flew himself back to the _Arizona_ , his dreadnought body proving to be as equally capable of operating in the cold of deep space. He closed in on a small, open hangar, one of many aboard, having transmitted that he was incoming. He soon landed in the bay, shutting off his multi-chamber ion engines and letting artificial gravity take over. He landed twisting his torso to place his right hand on the deck to land in a three-point stance. He could actually "feel" his suspension system absorb the impact as surely as they were his own legs.

The doors to the hangar closed. His hearing activated once the pressure reached the basic threshold to carry sound waves and quickly picked up the sound of one of the doors to the chamber opening. He stood up and turned to face the newly minted Archmagos Veritas, one of the Magi responsible for his resurrection into a dreadnought. The Magi in question, was a rare breed whom had become fully one with the machine, a line that was both difficult and often controversial to cross. Still he wore his new robes with pride.

 _I believe a measure of congratulations are in order._ Vernus transmitted to the Magos.

 _My gratitude to you, Vernus, but it was strongly due to your recommendation that I got this title, even more so, the Arizona._ Said the Archmagos, though being purely machine now, he still seemed to retain a measure of emotional capability in which at this time was expressing pride.

 _I assure you, I spoke only the truth in regards to your skill and your value. All of this is an investment by Mars in hopes that you will help advance the Cult Mechanicus._ Said Vernus as he gestured out of the hangar with one of his two left arms. The Magos moved to his side, walking with two of his four arms behind his back and one using his Omnissian power axe like a walking stick.

 _You are one to speak having additionally extracted the STCs for the Striker Eureka, Tacit Ronin, and Coyote Tango-pattern dreadnought/ titans. You have garnered so much favor from Mars, the Collegia Titanica and Legio Cybernetica especially, that you could become a Magos in your own right._ Said Veritas as they approached one of the magnetic trams that traveled through the ship.

 _I am sure the High Lords would not look favorably on an Astartes wielding political power. Besides I am sure the STC for the Subjugator pattern **you** extracted from the Arizona certainly elevates you above the norm. I hear you are making sure the designs are well-adjusted to Mars STC standards in the Arizona's shipyard._ Said Vernus.

 _It was then a foregone conclusion that I would be given the Ark._ Agreed the Magos, _Though I am certain that if you could, you would take the Arizona._

 _Then it would be subject to investigation by the Inquisition and we certainly do not want that._ Said the dreadnought.

 _No we do not. As it is now within my authority, the Arizona is being readied to travel though it will still take another 20 years. Provided you are still on Mars, I would be happy to take the Arizona and escort you and your battle-brothers back to your chapter._ Said the Archmagos.

 _I would be grateful… considering that the Kronus campaign is 30 years away._ said the Dreadnought.

The Archmagos stopped and regarded Vernus, _You knew?_

 _Blood Ravens are very good at finding hidden knowledge… like official dates._ Said the techmarine, _The Warp is mysterious, you are in no way guaranteed that you will arrive within the expected time of your arrival. Sometimes you arrive on time, sometimes you arrive weeks, months, centuries, and in some cases even millennia after the fact. Then there are occasions you arrive years before your are scheduled to arrive. All the same, it was not difficult to find out I had arrived 50 years before the Kronus campaign._

 _Yet you did not seek to rejoin and possibly warn your chapter?_ Said Veritas.

 _Meddling with the timeline potentially has terrible consequences, possibly even open up a new Warp rift. As a techmarine, among my many duties, it is my task to fix problems, not make them, unless it is for our enemies._ Said Vernus, _So instead, I will take this opportunity to create new opportunities and build new bonds of friendship between our chapter and other chapters, us and the Mechanicus especially._

 _Seems like internment is serving you well._ Said the Magos as the tram stopped at the Forge section where the techmarine dreadnought spent much of his time.

 _Wisdom comes with experience and learning from it. Becoming a dreadnought means, I am to be listened to._ Said the dreadnought with a small degree of humor.

The Archmagos produced a sound which equated to laughter, _Indeed… Indeed. I look forwards to seeing more of your work._

The dreadnought stepped out of the tram and walked to his forge.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~)

It was fifteen years later, when a request for assistance came from Forge World Graia, which was coming under attack from an Ork WAAAGH! The _Arizona_ was armed and ready and with its unique FTL system, it was capable of responding in a timely manner. The Machine Spirit of the ship was anxious to be unleashed. Its weapons systems has passed all inspections and the ship was fully staffed.

Archmagos Veritas was in the control room, the ship's noosphere was a hive of data as it prepared to finally launch from the Ring of Iron. The large doors to the control room opened and the heavy thudding of footsteps moved over the deck accompanied by several others. Archmagos Veritas disconnected from his command chair and stood up to face the dreadnought. The frame of the dreadnought had been decorated further with commendations from the Iron Hands for his technological contribution to their once-dwindling pool of dreadnought frames.

Accompanying the dreadnought were the other Blood Ravens that had shown up aboard the _Arizona_ , along with three new techmarines that had completed their training on Mars a few years ago and were presently being trained under Vernus. Their armor and custom-built servo harnesses blended seamlessly together, a testament to their growing skill under techmarine Vernus' tutelage. The Magos could hear them conversing within their own private Noosphere.

 _Greetings, honored Vernus. How fares the Arizona?_ Archmagos Veritas asked.

 _I sense the Machine Spirit is anxious and hungers for battle but there is a sense of foreboding that I cannot quantify. It originates from the Ark Mechanicus itself._ Said the dreadnought.

 _Considering how quickly these jumps take, i will have the Arizona placed on high alert as soon as we are clear of the dock._ Said the Magos. The machines of the Imperium were mysterious and there were occasions where these machines from the baneblade to the Arks, sometimes developed an uncanny intuition. Magos Veritas had had many occasions where the veteran Baneblades under his former charge had predicted the destruction of either them or their crews. He was not about to ignore what was potentially the most powerful ship in the Mechanicus.

 _We will go prepare. Said the dreadnought before bowing._

The Archmagos reconnected to his command chair. He felt the navigation systems, he sensed subtle yet powerful influence of the _Arizona_. How does one speak to such an entity? How does one communicate with a mind so powerful it could swallow his consciousness? Vernus had explained it to him: you simply ask.

Shall we go to Graia? The Magos sent into the ship's noosphere. He sensed the consciousness stir. Veritas was uncertain as to whether it was do to him, his request or even the departure of the dreadnought, which it seemed attached to for some reason that exceeded his understanding. He sensed the navigation system synchronize instantly with the maneuvering thrusters as the Ark separated from the Ring of Iron. Through the ship, he could actually see Graia picked out from the navigation system's array of stars.

There was a strange sensation, then suddenly, he knew they were there at Graia. The Archmagos pulled out of the noosphere to blaring alarms. He knew instantly what the problem was.  
"Battlestations! All hands prepare to repel boarders! Ork Croozers incoming!" Said the Magos through his vox unit.

What an interesting way to start the journey.


	2. Chapter 2

- _Archmagos, please relay all auspex scans to me for analysis._ \- Vernus transmitted through the Ark's noosphere.

Rather than the Magos responding, he got data from the ship at exactly the rate he desired. His fellow Blood Ravens gathered in one of the Ark's hangars, one specifically set aside for them. As the standard practice of their chapter, they were planning for the incoming battle however, in the absence of librarians, they had to make do with what they had, which was still a lot. They had information from the Forge World itself, the advanced sensorum systems of the _Arizona_ , and even the Ultramarines which had responded along with several forces deployed by the Astra Militarium.

It was through tacit acknowledgement that Vernus was recognized as the ranking officer of the Blood Ravens and his centuries of experience allowed him to help fill the holes in their knowledge base.

"So… it looks as though Ultramarine Captain Titus has managed to make landfall with a small contingent of his fellow ultramarines. His strategy is rather out of character for those stiff-necks." Said Sergeant Dexian Vale lookin at the holographic tactical overlay projected from their freshly-forged Thunderhawk.

"He is an avenue of flexibility to be considered. However, what concerns me is this Inquisitor Drogan and the lack of communication with Graia's Fabricator General." Said Vernus," While the local _Mechanicus_ has been helpful, there has been no word from the Fabricator General or any of his senior Magi. The Inquisitor seems to be researching a Warp-based power source. While it does have great potential as a weapon, we can also consider the idea that he has been compromised and this power source could cause a Chaos incursion if it has not done so already."

" _I have personally contacted both the Inquisition and the Collegis Extremis, I pray to the Omnissiah that neither are necessary however, where there is experimentation with the Warp, incursion by Chaos are never far behind. Though I must ask, how did you find out?"_ Asked Archmagos Veritas.

"A local Mechanum Theologis informed me of strange energies powering Manufactorum Ajakis not derived of the sacred Motive Force." said Vernus.

"We will potentially need heavier weapons on the ground." Said Battle-brother Neihlem.

"There is only one Warlord-class titan, Invictus, available as the rest of _Legio Astraman_ is deployed offworld, and its foundry is under direct assault by the Orks." Said Sergeant Vale.

"Our most effective approach for both defending against the Orks and preparing for a Warp incursion is by supporting defending Imperial Forces." Said Dreadnought Vernus," If we can clear the skies by deploying, retaking, and repairing anti-air installations, we can gain air support and land additional Titans from the _Arizona_. Is that possible Archmagos?"

" _The_ Collegia Titanica _members aboard assure me we have a Gipsy Danger-pattern, two Cherno Alpha-patterns, and two Coyote Tango-patterns, supported by a dozen Warhounds ready for deployment. Their weapons loadout is being balanced according to your strategy. However, with the orks having captured this gun landing will prove impossible at this time."_ Said the Archmagos through the vox line, the hologram highlighting the massive gun battery.

"Magos, do you have the schematics for the gun?" Asked the dreadnought.

" _One moment…"_ Veritas hologram distorted momentarily before stabilizing,"... _I have them though Graia's Fabricator-General is being less than forthcoming."_

Vernus received the data and had the Thunderhawk project the gun emplacement in detail.

"It might be easier to simply destroy it." Said Brother-Sergeant Vale.

"In the short term, it would be, however, it would create a glaring hole in Graia's defenses for years." Said the dreadnought. The image of the gun zoomed in on the ammunition auto-loader. Vernus pointed at it with one of his clawed fingers," Here. Sabotage the belt and you sabotage the gun temporarily. Magos, would it be possible to secure the gun with your Skitarii?"

" _Disable the belt at this point, and I can have my Skitarii clear the gun from that point. I will also ready servitor sentry turret emplacements so it is not so easy to take next time."_ Said the Archmagos.

"Also if at all possible we could use some of your enginseers briefed on this world's vehicle patterns. There is potential that we could potentially recover vehicles from the battlefield." Said Vernus," That will alter certain battlefield conditions in our favor. Is my forge ready?" Asked the dreadnought.

" _It can be deployed in any place of your choosing_ " Said the Archmagos.

"I will keep you apprised as we are able." Said Vernus.

" _Praise be to the Omnissiah!_ " Said Veritas.

"Praise be to the Omnissiah!" Boomed Vernus in response.

The presence of the Ark's Captain vanished. The larger doors to the hangar opened to two of the Ark's striders, 20 meter tall, four-legged constructs designed for various purposes throughout the _Arizona_. In this particular instance, they carried large containers covered in parchment in various places, their casing was inscribed with the runes of logis technis and the icon of the Opus Machina.

When the automatons had come close enough, they became still. A hiss emerged from the automatons as clamps released and the steady whine of servos was heard. The boxes lowered evenly before one side began to lower, each using six linked cables to change the container from horizontal to vertical. They lowered the boxes to the deck. The cables released and retracted into the automatons. Another hiss of steam came from the constructs as they simply walked back out of the hangar leaving the Space Marines with the boxes bearing blessings of tech-priests.

The monolithic monuments to the Omnissiah towered even over the dreadnought, whom extended several mechadendrites from his body into various ports into both of the cases. The dreadnought's vox unit emitted clear resonating binaric chants, a result of the vacuum tube technology sealed in tubes, forged of diamond. The eye sockets of the Opus Machinas came to life and the cogs surrounding them rotated as the systems began their unlocking sequence.

When both boxes opened laterally, one revealed shelves of forged battle plate bearing the Aquila of the Imperium and ruby-studded raven of the Blood Ravens. The other box opened to reveal an incredible armory of weapons with the upper section filled with large weapons that were clearly meant to only be wielded by the dreadnought. The lower sections opened to reveal rows of venerated weapons; plasma rifles and pistols, bolters, heavy bolters, assault cannons, rocket launchers, lascannons, meltas, multi-melta, and multiple fusions of all. The other box was revealed to have pieces of armor, freshly forged and ready for installation. Their makeshift squad was small and he would be damned if he did not employ every skill, every scrap of knowledge, and resource he had to prevent them from falling before returning to their chapter.

"Brother Vale, step forth." Vernus spoke, his deep voice booming through the hangar.

His battle-brother stepped forward bowing his head in humility. Vernus extended from his back four of his long spidery limbs, extending and reaching for the second box to collect pieces of armor.

"Stand and receive the blessings of the Omnissiah." Said the techmarine dreadnought with no small measure of pride. As the Space Marine rose, Vernus recalled with perfect clarity how when Dexian was an Initiate, how convicted he was in pursuing the path of the Adeptus Astartes, his mind a cup to be filled with knowledge. He knew that even the application of the sacred oils to his weapons was applied with equal conviction. Even after 200 years, he still served his Emperor, his chapter, his weapons and armor with equal conviction. When Venus still walked as mostly flesh and blood, he recalled how Dexian never hesitated to perform what his chapter required, even if it meant watching the back of a techmarine while he attempted a rescue mission for one of the chapters many vehicles.

Vernus' limbs moved with practice he had honed with years in the forge. Mechadendrites extended from various places on his metal body and they reached to unclasp pieces of armor from his battle brother, his spidery limbs delivering the new pieces and taking away the old. one mechadendrite interfaced with his armor's machine spirit, a song of praise and renewal flooding the suit in Binaric, updating the armor with new systems. Vernus limbs resembled a spider wrapping its prey in a cocoon only he was wrapping a battle-brother with his forge's promise of protection.

When his limbs and mechadendrites pulled back they revealed a warrior resplendent in gleaming armor. Brother-sargeant Dexian Vale moved with reverence as he received his weapons loadout, a dual-purpose bolter rifle with a secondary krak grenade launcher, a plasma pistol, and a custom power sword forged of adamantium and depleted promethium.

The Blood Ravens' Master of the Forge refit every one of the Blood Ravens with him customizing their armor and their weapons to enhance their strengths and makeup for their weaknesses and arranged their squads accordingly. It was soon time for the drop, the 12 Blood Ravens entered the single Thunderhawk, while Vernus with his weapons loadout locked in place and Omnissian power Axe in hand waited. The Thunderhawk fired its engines as Vernus heard through the internal noosphere as the techmarines inside annotated the proper rites of activation.

Vernus cycled up his dreadnought body's own engines, the multi-chambered ball socket ion engines. Vernus uploaded to the techmarines piloting the multiple vectors best suited for their aggressive flight down. He held no illusions that the ride down would be rough, anti-aircraft fire filling the airspace. He tapped into the Ark's noosphere to get an update from the space around them. As expected, the attacking Ork Croozers were laughably unequal to the sheer firepower wielded by the Ark. Coordinating fire with the other Imperial Navy Starships, the Ark worked to clear the airspace while simultaneously defending against the Ork ships still incoming.

The air was pumped out of the hangar and gravity shut off a the doors opened," _Blood Ravens, you are clear for the next 43.873 seconds. Go now."_ Said the Magos.

Not wasting time, the Thunderhawk and the dreadnought flew from the hangar and hit the atmosphere. In spite of the heat generated from reentry, The dreadnought had sealed his more vulnerable auspex and sensorum behind protected panels. Once he had entered a lower altitude he leveled out and began to cool off. His sensorum returned from behind their panels again. He was rapidly made aware of how narrow a window he had had as an uncoordinated group of Ork fighta' Bombas heading for him and the Thunderhawk.

Vernus rapidly activated his targeting system locking onto each Ork vehicles and many of their rocket troopas. He activated the Cyclone Missile launchers attached to his shoulders and fired a salvo. The missile each moved precisely and hit their targets. The dreadnought sent the launchers to reload from his ammo pack as they were cleared temporarily to land. Vernus had chosen a battle line between the local defenders and the Orks which was as he predicted on the verge of collapse.

Vernus spied a target worthy of his attention: a Killa can. He killed his engines and let gravity carry him feet first onto the Ork Mek crushing it under his weight. He unlocked the clamps holding one of his newest weapons and grabbed it with one of his two left arms. An enclosed belt fed ammunition and power from his back module to eight barrels encircling a ninth. The eight barrels spun up and hell was unleashed. The precise artificial musculature of his arms combined with the advanced targeting array of his dreadnought body, allowed him to put a single round through every skull of the orks. He detected nobs coming his way and switched to one of the three belts running through the ammunition feed running from his back. He switched to a belt of depleted uranium-tipped, armor-piercing rounds and tore through them.

Ork rounds bounced off his chassis and rockets exploded harmlessly as the dreadnought relieved the Imperial Guard unit and gave his battle-brothers time to land and deploy. Vernus' metallurgical sensorum detected explosive combinations approaching from the ork lines; shaped magnetic charges, the bane of many a dreadnought. He switched back to anti-personnel rounds and precisely targeted the orks… or more specifically... the charges they were carrying. Several explosions from the charges blew holes in the ork lines.

Then the ork charge reached a crescendo with the arrival of heavier weapons, looted tanks, more killa cans, and deff dreads. He sent a signal down to the assault weapon to access the third belt, high-explosive rounds of his own design. He pounded their armored lines while taking careful note of the looted tanks whose pillaged machine spirits remained intact in spite of being transformed by the ork mek boyz.

Vernus twirled the Omnissian Power axe in his other left arm, performing a quick calibration, and rotated his shoulder, moving the polearm axe-wielding arm into the forwards position. He intoned his body's machine spirit to transform his right hand to deploy his built in plasma cannon while also chanting to the machine spirit of his custom pattern, dreadnought-variant assault autocannon which was also a combi weapon. In the back cylinder of the weapon was a miniature reactor combined with high-energy ultracapacitors to power an exceptionally powerful lascannon built into the rotary axel of the weapon.

The looted tanks fired their main guns some of the shells impacting against his armor, shaking him in his sarcophagus. When a glyph appeared in his mind's eye, [weapons ready], Venus roared, his vox unit shaking the battlefield," FOR THE EMPEROR, THE UNKNOWN PRIMARCH, AND THE OMNISSIAH!" He momentarily stunned the orks as he charged forwards with incredible speed, his long digitigrade legs propelling him towards the nearest group of ork meks. At the last minute, he leaped into the air while simultaneously firing both his plasma cannon and lascannon, both finding their marks, destroying both a looted tank and a killa can.

As gravity propelled him to the ground, he raised his power axe into the air, the weapon crackling with power as he brought it down into a deff dread, neatly bisecting the mek down the middle. His assault autocannon opened up its back section as it entered rapid cooling mode. He replaced the weapon into his holding clamps, the ammunition belt retracting into his back module. With said hand now, empty, Vernus activated the hand's lightning claws, as he picked up the axe and charged the three remaining looted tanks.

His sensorum noted that additional orks and gretchins were falling to his battle-brothers covering fire. He noted the irony as dreadnoughts were normally relegated to a support role on the battlefield but there he was engaging in a full-blown assault. Vernus approached one of the looted tanks he had marked for recovery. One of his long, spidery servo arms, equipped with a magazine-fed heavy bolter was readied as he dodged the fire from the tank. He leaped on top of it, ripped the top hatch off and sprayed the interior with with precision fire from the bolter, killing the occupants.

The large mech demonstrated its acrobatic capability by doing a backflip off one tank and landing on the opposite side of the other. Before the sponson-mounted weapon could fire, the dreadnought dug its hands under the treads and with a herculean effort flipped the tank onto its side. Before he could repeat his execution of the crew of the tank, a round penetrated the looted tank, detonating the ammunition magazine.

"Did we git 'im?" Asked the looted tank's nob commander.

"Can't see 'im." Replied the driver before his head suddenly exploded.

"Where is 'e?" The nob shouted in confusion," He opened the top hatch only to be suddenly yanked out followed by a wet crunching sound. Suddenly a small sphere dropped into the looted Leman Russ' interior.  
"Wot dat?" Asked an ork before the entire tank was filled with blazing light.

"AAAAHHHH! ME EYEZ!" Screamed the Orks. Two more Orks were pulled out of the tank by two long spidery limbs and the remaining orks were executed by bolter fire.

The battlefield had grown quiet as the Blood Ravens mopped up the orks in the area. At the behest of the dreadnought, several guardsmen were called to the two tanks. They saw the dreadnought standing between the two tanks, his multiple limbs working to effect as many restorations to the tanks as he could in as short a time as he had, all the while soothing their tortured machine spirits with resonating binaric chants.

"My Lord, we answer your summons." Said the one of the guardsmen as they all took a knee before the ancient one.

The chanting ended as the dreadnought turned to the guardsmen, his imposing height intimidating, his voice doubly so.

"These machines have suffered, being mutilated by the foul hands of the xenos. Take them to a place of safety behind your lines, and do not use them until a tech-adept is able to ease their pain." Ordered Vernus.

"As you will, my lord." Said the guardsmen as they rose and climbed into the tanks. Vernus placed a hand on each Leman Russ and spoke the incantation of activation. The tanks roared to life, their mechanisms screeching in pain from the violation of their bodies. Vernus soothed them with a time table of rest. The tanks rolled away.

It was at that time that Vernus' techmarine acolytes approached, their vox channels filled with binaric chants of reverence towards him. It was something the Forgemaster would need to adjust to as techmarine dreadnoughts were few and far in between, even more those that were capable of resuming their work in the forge as well as the battlefield.

He waited for them to speak.

"Tech-brother Vernus, we have visited the nearby Guardsmen encampment. With your glorious skills, you were able to grant them room to reorganize. We were able to speak with their highest-ranking officer and were able to divine an entrance into the gun battery." Reported tech-brother Chelpanus, transmitting the information they gleaned. Vernus routed local servo skulls to carefully scout the area.

Even over a distance they became a carefully coordinated group of eyes, Vernus utilized local noosphere networks to maintain his connection to them. He found where the offensive ork rok had rammed into the gun.

As according to plan, Vernus was to secure the region around the gun station while his fellow Blood Ravens and his acolytes disabled the gun.

He diverted many of the skulls to examine the local genetorum shrines. He looked at each one. One was being violated by the orks but the hardy materials of their ancient construction were proving difficult to the ork mek boyz. The skulls kept out of sight and the precision allotted to him by his dreadnought body allowed him to exercise quiet steps. Using his lightning claws, spidery servo-arms, and Omnissian power axe, Vernus ambushed the orks and sliced through them with great speed coupled with his multi-tasking capabilities. The shrine was soon clear. Some of his servo arms activated their plasma torches and began to systematically purge the area of the ork bodies.

Vernus had the servo skulls patrol the area so he could focus on repairing the shrine. He had allotted a degree of flexibility in his planning to alot for potential diversions such as tending to the will of the Omnissiah. The genetorum shrine had been damaged but the repair rites were in his most basic knowledge base. His vox unit began to emit binaric chants as he enacted the repair rites. The bewildered machine spirit began to be calmed under his care and soon the genetorum pulsed with power once again. As he quickly wrapped up the rites, his skulls reported a humanoid entourage approaching his position. Judging from their lack of upper body attire, copper-cladded hands, rubber boots, and blindfolds, he was looking at Corpuscarii electro-priests.

They walked in with all their faces looking at him. From the sheer power of the sacred Motive Force running through their bodies, their eyes had long ago melted out of their head. However, based upon Vernus' index of knowledge, he speculated that due to the augments in their bodies they could "see" due to being walking transceivers for multiple frequencies.

"Greetings, servants of the Motive Force, I am Techmarine Vernus of the Blood Ravens's chapter." Said the Dreadnought to the electro-priests.

The wielders of the Motive Force collectively bowed and their leader spoke," We welcome you, Machine-touched. You are expected and needed."

"How may I help you?" Asked Vernus.

"You have spoken with our Mechanum Theologis and know only a fraction of our plight, now that you are here, we realize that the extent to which you can assist us is greater than initially anticipated. Below our feet is a sacred temple to the Motive Force but due the recall of tech-adepts that would otherwise service our temple, it is steadily failing. However, we know that you have a plan you must adhere to and we are willing to add our number to yours in exchange for your help."

The techmarine thought for a moment before grabbing one of the servo skulls, extending a mechadendrite to interface with it. He inputted the alterations to their plan, encoding it in logis technis for his tech-acolytes. He released it to travel to one of three muster points based upon differing strategies. He repeated it with two other servo skulls before turning to the electro-priests," I will assist you."

"Follow us" Said the leader before turning back the way they came. They led the way through many cavernous passageways before enacting a chant which opened a wall revealing a lift. As soon as the party and the dreadnought boarded, the lift descended. It soon opened up to a vast chamber, which his sensorum suite was able to make out as what appeared to be an abandoned and ancient manufactorum. As for what it manufactured, it stood out plainly before him. Suspended from various chains with links as large as Leman Russ tanks, was the incomplete awe-inspiring form of an _Imperator-_ class titan.

It was incomplete to the extent that merely it's cathedral was anywhere close to recognizable. It did seem to have several design differences from that of its kin that he saw on the Holy Forge World of Mars. Primarily, where the head was designed to sit on this particular _Imperator,_ was more akin to where it would be mounted on a _Warlord_ -class titan as opposed to dead even with the shoulders. As for the shoulders themselves, the cathedral on top seemed addapted to allow whatever arms were mounted, free movement. Below the the cathedral was were a lot of work remained, the torso barely showing any signs of completion with only the central reactor being recognizable but even that seemed incomplete.

"A God-Machine. What happened to it?" Vernus asked the electro-preists.

"An ancient project that was never completed. It is not known why the project was abandoned the machine spirit of the manufactorum has been silent beyond memory." Said the leader.

The lift reached the bottom. The assembly of electro-preists moved reverentally along the wide platform the ran the length of the ancient manufactorum. As the technmarine dreadnought followed them, he continued to scan the titan, attempting to glean additional details while also scanning the rest of the dark manufactorum to see if any of the titan's parts were in any stage of completion. The group turned to cross a bridge that was wide enough to acccomadate two baneblades side-by-side with room to spare for a leman Russ. The bridge was clearly designed to part for when the titan would have been finished and strolled out of the forge, and from what he could tell a vast ramp would have allowed the titan access to the surface.

On the opposite side of the bridge was another lift which lowered them further still. It soon was revealed to him a genetorum cathedral beneath the manufactorum. He only needed to look to see that the majority of the machine spirits slumbered, likely when the manufactorum was literally buried under construction, desired to be forgotten. He was led to the center, the heart of the ancient temple, the center of the of the electro-preists place of worship. Vernus could see that one of the few awakened machine spirits was in pain, likely the reason he was there.

The central chamber was dominated by an _Opus Machina_ embedded in the floor. An armature from the ceiling held two parallel dais on which rested two electro-preists. On one was an old electro-preist, his skin pale as opposed to the healthy blue. On the other was a youth who bore the scars of surgery, clearly having been readied to host the motive force.

The head of the ancient electro-preist turned to face Vernus. While clearly a struggle for him, he spoke," I consider it a honor to meet such a devoted servant of the Omnisssiah. To finally meet you, Master of the Forge, Vernus of the Blood Ravens chapter."

"You are the Mechanus Theologis, I spoke with." Vernus deduced.

"I am." Said the electro-preist," Allow me to explain why you have been brought here. When I contacted you it was because the incomplete machine spirit of the titan roused to speak of one who would complete it and take it and the manufactorum to the stars, one of theose blessed by the Omnissiah, a machine-touched. When you contacted us from the Ark Mechanicus, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were the one spoken of. I ask you here at this time to assist us in a time of need. I am soon to become one with the Motive Force and have chosen Tsendek to be my inhieritor. However, even though the majority of his cybernetics are in place, there still remains more. In a chamber sealed off to us is what remains for the ritual to be completed."

The old Mechanus Theologis raised a shaking hand and pointed over his shoulder," Revive the heart of the manufactorum and the doors will open."

Venus moved over to an altar faintly obscured in shadow. He could see through his sensorum that there were various connection points for mechandendrites. He leaned on his Omnissian power axe as he placed his right hand on the Altar extending many mechandendrites from his arm and body, connecting to it. Golden light began to spread from both his touch and his connections. He felt the machine spirits stir as power flowed through the ancient cathedral. Archaic machinery squealed to life and the chamber was sudddenly bathed in light. The two dais were pulled into the ceiling as venerable systems began their ancient work. The ceiling irised shut as the preisthood began to emit a binaric chorus or death and renewal.

- _Blessed is the one who answers the call of the Omnisssiah, who wields the Motive Force, who serves the Machine god.-_ The old Mechanus Theologis gave up his life energies and was no more.


	3. Chapter 3

(Graia, orbit)

From what Archmagos Veritas could ascertain through the _Arizona_ 's military noosphere, the battle in space was… progressing. While the remains of the Imperial Navy sought to whittle down the number of ork roks, kroozers, and battlekroozers, their losses were substantial. The Ark Mechanicus was more than easily holding its own. He sensed deep within the noosphere the great machine spirit of the _Arizona_ , alert and subtly manipulating its internal systems ranging from ammunition manufacture and delivery to readying to drop the titans.

The Archmagos paused.

 _Drop the Titans? You do not "drop" god-machines._

Veritas scanned through the noosphere and sure enough he found the titans with the exception of the Warhounds in custom-built drop tube without any type of reentry shielding! He accessed the Ark Mechanicus' local copy of the new titan STCs and after briefly processing, he found to his utter surprise that the new titans actually could be deployed from orbit! If this drop was successful, it would alter the tactical deployment of titans.

A general alert scrolled across the noosphere,+ _Initiating void material processors. Gravity cones enabled +_

 _What?_ Thought the magos in confusion.

Through the _Arizona's_ sensorum, Vertias saw 57 ork kill kroozers and battlekroozers suddenly, simultaneously shift course towards the massive 20 km diameter _Opus Machina_ on either side of the Ark _._ The mouths of the cybernetic icon opened, revealing swirling blades and white hot interiors. The croozers were sucked in and ground to pieces and their remains were melted down and promptly processed and refined into the ship's stores. Magos Durindfire, who coordinated the ship's batteries, employed a new algorithm with the newly deployed systems.

- _This is Princeps Aurora, Legio Arizona, Battle group 1, ready for deployment._ -

- _Magos Dominus Jendacus Fenstricus, Skitarii division Sigma-Alpha ready for tactical deployment #23872-34A-_

 _-All parties, the way is clear, deploy immediately.-_ Magos Veritas gave the order.

The landing craft bearing the skitarii legions launched from the open bays which rapidly closed behind them. The titans were launched from their tubes, their own descent heralded by the force of air pressure beating against their lower void shields. With all available landing parties heading for the ground and Magos Dominus Durindfire directing the Ark's weapons and fighters, the Archmagos turned his attention to readying internal space in the Ark for a new titan occupant: the incomplete Imperator titan found by Tech-Dreadnought Vernus.

(Graia, surface)

The dreadnought in question emerged from the depths to be greeted by a servo skull. Venus walked by transmitting a string of binaric to the servo skull which moved to be grabbed by one of the dreadnought's spidery servo arms. A mechadendrite slipped out of his shoulder plate and connected with the skull. The data was run through various decryption algorithms before revealing its contents. It was a message from his deployed Blood Ravens, indicating message received and which tactical scenario was used.

The local noosphere gave a burst of static before being filled with encrypted information. The ID belonged to techmarine Adjuctus, one of his acolytes. His machine spirit decoded it and soon he was linked in real time to the events taking place inside the gun battery through the eyes of the servo skulls inside. Brother Vale had set up a defensive position near the severed ammunition belt to prevent the orks from repairing it.

Everything from defense, intelligence, and supplies was firmly established with tactically deployed defense turrets keeping the bulk to the orks at bay while larger foes were targeted by Brother Harknus, a Devastator marine with a heavy combi bolter with a secondary metla function to deal with larger clusters of enemies that had slipped through the turret fire. He was supplemented by Brother Erebus, a veteran tactical marine, and Brother Petricus, a recently commissioned full battle brother, who switched between his bolter rifle and his sniper rifle.

Satisfied that his battle brothers were doing well, Verus and his retinue of Electro-priests emerged into the open, his proximity sensorum indicated massive objects incoming. His audio receivers, built with the same level of quality as his vox-caster, indicated he look up. Vernus looked up to the the massive forms of the incoming titans. Large rockets producing counter-thrust, rapidly arrested their descent. The rockets cut out shortly before the titans landed. A testament to their precisely calculated descent, the titans' landing produced only a slight ground tremor with each of the god-machines landing tremors cancelling each other out.

Vernus continued to the landing point where the skitarii were landing. It was there he would be resupplied with ammunition and skitarii reinforcements, promised to him by Magos Veritas. A series of small explosions were heard from the titans as their landing rockets were jettisoned from their legs and torsos, these would be later collected and returned the Arizona to be reused for future deployments.

In the meantime, _Apparatus Gloria_ , the _Gipsy Danger_ titan leading the newly minted _Legio Arizona_ led the formation of _Coyote Tango_ titans to secure Manufactorum Ajakis while _Formis Ultima_ and _Pentus Ultima_ , brother _Cherno Alpha_ titans, would take up a defensive perimeter around the subterranean titan manufactorum while the incomplete _Imperator_ was recovered. Transport craft ferrying numerous _Warhound_ titans landed. Most of rites of activation had been performed on the _Arizona_ so the scout titans could launch from their transports with all expediency.

Magos Dominus Jendacus Fenstricus greeted the Master of the Forge with a complex hexamathical equation, which the dreadnought completed, demonstrating his vast knowledge. The Dominus was occupying his combat form which was wrought in the form of a silvery scorpion. His combat form was recently built aboard the _Arizona_ , utilizing the rare foundries which could still produce adamantium and the only ship which could alloy it with Depleted Promethium. Vernus considered it a high honor to have aided the Magos in the fabrication of his body.

Magos Fenstricus was formerly attached to the _Collegis Extremis,_ where he had endured having had his skitarii legions devastated by Khornate Brass Scorpions. He was able to successfully defeat the machines but at great cost. His accomplishments against the ruinous powers earned him the title of Dominus. The Magos had taken his posting to the recently discovered Ark Mechanicus with glee and happily utilized the _Arizona_ 's unique fabrication capabilities to forge a combat body of superior design to the Brass Scorpion and though smaller, was faster and more powerful. Of course, the body had yet to be blooded on the battlefield… now was as good a time as any.

 _\- Praise be to the Omnissiah for this Glorious Day of Battle! -_ The Dominus expressed the closest thing he came to excitement. The articulated three-fingered claws of the combat form's primary arms, derived from a variation of the _Crimson Typhoon_ dreadnought STC, the limbs had the ability to transform into versatile plasma cannons respectively.

 _\- Praise be the Omnissiah for today we fulfill his charge of the acquisition and defense of his gifts!-_ Intoned the techmarine dreadnought.

The two soon faced the landing assembly, in the distance several booms of retro rockets were heard as the Astra Militarum was delivering its own reinforcements to the beleaguered forces. While the forces in orbit were able to secure a portion of said orbit there were still thousands of Ork Roks slipping through. The work was far from done.

 _\- So we are expecting the Ruinous Powers? -_ asked the Magos. His primary sensorum array was recessed between his primary arms and was shaped similar to that of a crustacean but with multiple diamond-forged lenes gazing about the skitarii legions as they were assembling for the upcoming fight.

 _\- Yes but there is also a sense that there could be the beginnings of the work of the Dark Mechanicum. -_ Though it was simple information exchange over a localized noosphere, the Magos Dominus could tell it was spoken with experience.  
\- _What makes you so suspicious?_ \- Asked Fenstricus. They watched as Adeptus Mechanicus support forces landed, large construction machines were unloaded to begin the necessary work to extract the incomplete god-machine.

\- _The speed at which civilians were evacuated, the timing of the orks invasion, while the mainstay of_ Legio Astraman _is deployed elsewhere, the absence of large scale enginseer support on a forge world, an Inquisitor conveniently studying Warp-based technology… too many things happening at once to be even a simple Daemonic incursion. -_ The dreadnought went silent.

\- _I see that internment has only sharpened your instincts, brother techmarine Vernus._ \- A new voice invaded their noosphere. Vernus examined the ID ping of the new speaker and was both relieved and concerned by who it belonged to. His sensorum array was allowed to detect a fellow techmarine of seldom known chapter. The message was isolated to him alone.

 _\- Do excuse me, Magos. -_ The dreadnought nodded to the Magos in respect and the combat form went to see to the preparations of his skitarii.  
Vernus moved into the cavernous ruins, out of sight of the landing forces. Inside he was greeted by a squad of Grey Knights, Inquisitors, and their own forces. There were very few that were permitted to retain knowledge of these enigmatic space marines, the Blood Ravens chapter being among them. Over the course of several hundred years, Vernus had had many a privilege to serve alongside this secretive chapter.

As his auspex array looked over some of their armor and weapons, he recognized several of his own marks in regards to workmanship. He saw one of their twin-linked, wrist-mounted storm bolters which he had been graciously permitted to service. He saw a crusader helm he had forged from remains of a god machine that had faithfully fought against the Ruinous Powers to the end before succumbing to the sheer power railed against it. The helm had been fitted with archaeotech sensorum linked via fiber optic cables forged from rare Lorelei Crystals acquired from the deep deserts of Kalidar. Most of all, he saw a Servo-Harness, that he had helped craft alongside its owner, Grey Knight Techmarine Prodromos.

"I see congratulations are in order, Master of the Forge Prodromos." Vernus addressing the fellow techmarine but taking care to lower the volume of his vox unit so his voice would not carry beyond the chamber.

"And it seems that you have been similarly gifted with a dreadnought chassis, so blessed by the Cult Mechanicus." Said the squad leader, his armor bearing the distinctive marks of a Justicar.

"How might I serve the Ordo Malleus?" Vernus asked. If the Grey Knights were here, they they had received a prognostication that predicted a daemonic incursion. Vernus had served with the Grey Knights on several occasions, working side by side with their techmarines.

"Our prognosticators had several visions related to this world, you were among them. It was unclear as to the exact nature of the threat, we hope you might have more enlightening details." Said the Justicar which Prodromos identified as Justicar Styer.

"An Inquisitor Drogan has been researching Warp-based technologies under the watch of the Graia's Cult Mechanicus. If you are here, then it confirms the inevitable conclusion of Drogan's research, however other events on this planet have made me strongly suspect the workings of the Dark Mechanicus, though without a Librarian, I could only build a strategy based upon logical conjecture." Stated Vernus as he directed his body's machine spirit to transmit what he had learned and the strategies he had developed.  
"As expected of a Blood Raven, very thorough…" Mused Librarian Gerad," It does grant greater clarity for our prognostication but still lacking detail."  
"Even Exterminatus is considered in this strategy." Said Inquisitor Furia, the squad's inquisitorial attache.  
"...And with considerable complexity and multiple objective surrounding the recovery of artifacts and knowledge," Stated Prodromos.

"I see no reason to alter your plan at this time, it covers many avenues, alternatives, and redundancies. We will investigate and see if your suspicions of the Dark Mechanicum are true." Spoke Justicar Styer.

"As for this Inquisitor Drogan, I will accompany you. You will need to be backed by the proper authority in order for you to take necessary action." Said Inquisitor Furia.

"Shall I inform Magos Veritas of your involvement? It will allow us to avoid potential disagreements." Asked the dreadnought as he directed his head to gaze at the mostly mechanical body of the Inquisitor as the Grey knights slipped into the shadows.

The Inquisitor seemed to ponder Vernus' request, considering the wisdom of one so ancient. Normally, making forces of the Astra Militarum aware would be overly complicated and time consuming but the request was to make Mechanicus forces, whom were already aware of the potential incursion and making their own preparations under a Magos whom had proven his own combat value against the Immaterium.  
She finally answered,"If you can contact him with all due expediency, then do so quickly."

Accessing the Magos' vox-channel, the tech-dreadnought sent a compressed burst message to the Magos, telling him of the Inquisitor but leaving out the presence of the Grey Knights to avoid the potential complication of trying the erase the partially mechanical minds of the Cult Mechanicus forces and tracking down every innocuous record of their existence for the Mechanicus never deletes anything. Vernus put that thought out of his labyrinthine mind.

With the message sent, Vernus once again spoke raising his voice to appropriate levels, no longer concerned about being heard in the absence of the Sons of Titan," How do you wish to proceed?"

Even with the enhancements that had come with her cybernetic reconstruction, she lacked the mental processing speed to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the Blood Raven's plan for this campaign. She had worked for many decades with the Grey Knights, whom grappled against corrupt and chaotic intelligences, but their battles were never planned out to this level of detail or scale. While there were traces and references to the _Codex Astartes,_ the stratagem was constructed around who was participating in the battle.

Furia's vox unit emitted her conclusion," We proceed with your plan."

Vernus said nothing further as he plodded out of the ruins back into the skitarii landing zone. The Magos Dominus had already been informed of the Inquisitor and her presence was logged. The tech-dreadnought approached a cylindrical tower, 50 meters wide and 150 meters tall. It lower plating was blackened from reentry but its symbols of both the _Opus Machina_ and iconography of the Blood Ravens was present on multiple points.

The Inquisitor noted the presence of numerous machines taking to the now reinforced battlefield. The quadrupedal striders stood over ork wreckage and picked up corpse and machine alike either carrying it of dragging it. As she stepped into the tower behind the ancient techmarine, she saw the wreckage and bodies were dumped into massive shovels which hauled them up and into blast furnaces, where heavily cloaked serfs intoned chant and ritual of purification. The roar of the forge was deafening but she pressed on.

She saw Vernus turn and back into the docking gantry designed for him. There were alcoves filled with other dreadnought shells in various stages of completion. Numerous industrial servitors sprung into action, removing various components from the dreadnought, others cleaning grime from his armored body followed by applying sacred oils. She saw a module detached from his backside and replaced with a larger one. She turned her ruby colored gaze to see the other Blood Ravens entering the forge just behind her.

"This is Inquisitor Furia of the Ordo Malleus. She will be accompanying us, otherwise our plan remains unchanged." Vernus boomed above the noise of the forge.

"Excuse me for asking.." started the Inquisitor, the Blood Ravens directed their attention to her as she spoke,"... what is the next stage of this plan?"

"With the skies clearing and the _Legio Arizona_ serving as our vanguard, we will take our thunderhawk, which Brother techmarine Xentax has gone to retrieve, to Manufactorum Ajakis where we will aid in repelling the Orks and search for Inquisitor Drogan. If he is there, we will back you up as you request or desire, if not we will split our squad in half to reinforce key defenses and the other half to continue in our search." Explained Brother sergeant Vale.

"Also Magos Dominus Fenstricus has promised us aid while having us bear in mind that their priority is securing the god-machine _Invictus_ and retrieving the incomplete _Imperator_ , in conclusion they will stretched between these to points until we can activate _Invictus."_ Elaborated Vernus.

With his servicing completed, the gantry retracted, and Vernus took a few measured steps before running through a series of diagnostic movements. Furia was amazed by the smooth and precise motions the dreadnought was capable of, having had the unique and rare opportunity to see an Aegis dreadnought in action, this techmarine dreadnought, in spite of its size, moved with exceptional grace.

Satisfied his body was operating at peak efficiency and his machine spirit pulsed his reactor with anticipation of what was to come. Vernus took up his dreadnought-sized Omnissian Power axe and strode to exit the forge with Furia and his battle brothers following. Outside, they saw the thunderhawk undergoing repairs under the careful manipulations of techmarine Xentax. Vernus unfolded his spidery servo-arms and activated the tools in his main limbs. He intoned the spirit of his power axe and accessed its multi-tool functions.

Like any techmarine that had earned the title, Vernus was a Master of the Forge and he needed only to glance at the thunderhawk to know what was wrong. Fire from the Orks had damaged the maneuvering thrusters and violated its armor. The Forgemaster toned the rites or repair, soothing the gunship's spirit. In what would have taken his acolyte hours to repair, Vernus completed the repairs in minutes. Soon the engines of the gunship roared as the machine spirit grew eager for vengeance against its attackers

The inquisitor and the Blood Ravens boarded but Vernus remained outside. He turned on his anti-grav plates and charged his ion engine supercapacitors. When the energy peaked, his ion engines fired launching him from the ground. The gunship followed shortly thereafter. They were soon joined by the Dominus' forces as they took point and covered their transports against Ork fighta's.

It did not take them long to reach the defensive line surrounding the Manufactorum with _Apparatus Gloria_ and the two _Coyote Tango_ titans had already gotten to work unleashing their weapons against the ork tide. Still in spite of this massive support the defensive line was struggling to hold, as the orks gathered themselves in concentrated assaults. As much as he hated the orks like any other Astartes did, he had to admit, whomever the warboss was, he had chosen effective commanders for his horde. On the other hand, warbosses were easy to spot.

The tech-dreadnought transmitted his desire to remove the warboss. He was acknowledged by the Dominus and Princeps Aurora. Verus directed his body to fly closer to the battlefield, soaring over the heads of the orks, whom were slow to recognize something had even gone over their heads before he was gone. His flight sloped slightly upwards before he cut his engines and anti-grav plates, letting gravity turn his mass and momentum into a blunt weapon as brutal as an artillery shell. His feet were suddenly mired in crushed metal and gore as the warboss was rendered to a mess, not having the opportunity to fight back.

As he rose from his haunches, the tech-dreadnought used one of his left arms to pull his combi-assault cannon from his back. The cannon rapidly spun up and unleashed the Omnissiah's fury upon the confused xenos. The storm of heavy rounds designed specifically with orks in mind tore through them as easily as if they were made of paper. Vernus stepped further into the mob, whirling his power axe in his other left hand cutting through additional greenskins that though they could close on the tech-dreadnought. His right arm combined attacks from his wrist-mounted, twin-linked storm bolter and articulated lightning claws.

With the death of their warboss and the suddenness of being set upon by such a foe, the ork charge against the Imperial forces was broken allowing the Blood Ravens, Inquisitor, and skitarii to deploy and lead a charge into the mob. Inquisitor Furia stopped for a moment to focus her augmentic eyes upon the distant figure of the ancient Forgemaster. The whirling array of weapons, mixing ranged and melee, was awe-inspiring in the essence of his sheer destructive power, rivalling that of any other dreadnought she had the privilege of seeing in combat. Filing away those thoughts in her head to think on later, Furia led her accompanying group of six Blood Ravens into the Manufactorum in search of her quarry.

A plasma bolt from Vernus' right hand punched right through the armor of the looted tank, its structure collapsing in on itself before exploding from its ammunition igniting. He ripped a large plate from the steaming wreckage and pounded it flat with his feet. While his targeting array moved his assault cannon from target to target, his servo arms began their work on the plate, plasma cutters cut the plate into a perfect circle and using his lightning claws to hone a razor edge.

Once complete, the tech-dreadnought took the improvised weapon in his right hand, positioned his body, rotated at the waist and threw the plate like a discus through the horde sending a line of death through the xenos horde. Forging such simple weapons without mechanism or power was a bit of a grey area when it came to the the Cult Mechanicus. Sensors in his feet sensed larger vibrations, not quite titan-pulses but something else.

The Orks began to reorganize and rally as belching smoke appeared behind the ruins of several buildings. A crude fat body of metal emerged: a stompa. Armed with a chainsword obviously scavenged from an Imperial Knight, and the other arm crudely affixed with a baneblade Mega Battle cannon, and sticking out of itls belly was a Demolisher cannon. Vernus felt in himself a righteous fury. How dare they build such and affront to the Machine God out of the blessed heavy tank!

Vernus clamped down on his emotions, cooling his fury with a targeting solution which he transmitted to the _Apparata Gloria_. The titan spun on its heels grinding the pavement to fine gravel. Its hand transformed into its volcano cannon, aimed, and fired right at the stompa's Demolisher cannon. The ork mek's weapon melted and additional smoke emerge from its holes, the interior clearly on fire but the machine did not slow.

The battle cannon spurted fire and blasted Vernus in the middle of his chest, knocking him off his feet. As soon as he got his own head to stop spinning, Vernus started to cant binaric signals and drawing upon the mysterious nature of being machine-touched and soothed his body's machine spirit. He quickly ran through diagnostics, runic dialog passed to every system.

Many of his forward auspex nodes went dark, mostly the ones on his torso. One of his hip bearings had been misaligned and one of his pneumatic lines had been breached. He reoriented his internal gyroscopes and rose to his feet. Fortunately his head array was undamaged. He activated and realigned his head optics, his custom assault cannon was intact and remarkably so was its ammunition belt. When he twisted his head, he was dismayed to see the ruined remains of his power axe.

Reining in his emotions once again, he returned his focus to the offending construct. The stompa appeared to have suffered a catastrophic explosion in its poorly made cannon arm. The arm hung uselessly from twisted steel and sparking wires, yet the xenos walker was still making its way to him, raising the chain weapon to strike at him.

Running quick calculations, Vernus willed his dreadnought body to move out of the way at the last second as the weapon cut into the ground. He leaped into the air and onto the walkers arm as it tried to pull the chain weapon from the ground. Vernus used his servo arms to stabilize himself an began to use his lightning claws to rip open the armor around the arm and rip into its alien machinery.

An Ork head popped out of the main body to yell at him. A swish of one of his lightning claws and the ork tumbled back into the walker… without his head. It was just the opening he was looking for. He nimbly climbed over to the open hole in the stompa in spite of the protests of his limbs.

He once again transformed his right arm into its plasma cannon form. He placed the muzzle against the opening and fired repeatedly into the vile construct. More fires broke out, followed by additional explorions. The cries of orks and gretchins dying was heard but a growing cacophony of screeching was heard as the stompa ground to a halt.

Vernus leapt off the dead stompa which had gone from a monument of the ork to a funeral pyre. The Master of the Forge walked back and collected the remains of his power axe. The sacred tool would be reforged. Two of his servo arms took the remains of the axe and bound them to his back. Orks were fleeing about him, the loss of the stompa immensely demoralizing to them. One thing did leave the techmarine wondering: why didn't _Apparatta Gloria_ finish off the stompa?

He looked over to the battle titans and saw the reasons as they fired their weapons into the sky blasting apart a new wave of rok after rok. Every blast from the god-engines created a shower of debris forcing local forces to seek shelter. Vernus had his body set a limping jog back into the overhang of the Manufactorum, where the Dominus waited.

 _\- Princeps Enoch and his moderatti have boarded_ Invictus _and the activation rites are well underway._ Invictus _will walk before the day is out._ \- The Magos canted in binaric to the tech-dreadnought as he limped before sitting on a container that he judged could bear his body's weight,- _Your performance against the ork abomination was exemplary.-_

\- _Your words do me honor, Dominus, though it was the blessing of the Omnissiah that i was able to survive to destroy the stompa. -_ The dreadnought returned the binaric cant. Vernus had his servo arms delicately place the remains of his axe on the ground before having them set to work on his repairs. Mechadendrites extended from various panels, most focused on dismantling his hip plating to get at the misaligned bearing, while the others set to work on repairing his damaged sensorum.

 _\- Do you require assistance, Forgemaster? I can have enginseers here and you fixed up right away. -_ Canted the Dominus.

Vernus replied with a polite and respectful subcant attach to the primary _\- Your offer is gracious but unnecessary, Dominus. For how can one properly be expected to carry out the will of the Omnissiah, if one cannot properly understand and repair his gifts? -_

The dreadnought's mechadendrites exposed just enough of the complex mechanisms of his hip for him to stick two smaller tendrils in. And audible click was heard as his hip moved back into place. He reassembled the plating of his hip, the ruptured pneumatic pipe was repaired and the system repressurized. Vernus was able to repair the bulk of his damaged sensorum but some of the lens systems had to be rerouted when they proved too damaged to attempt battlefield repairs.

Vernus rose to his feet and bent down to better examine the damage to his power axe.

He turned to Fenstricus, resuming his binaric cant,- _Magos Dominus, the machine spirit of my axe perished in my defense. If you are able, please conduct its remains back to my forge.-_

 _-By the Omnissiah's will, I will have it done. -_ The Dominus' scorpion combat form did not move but the skein of the noosphere indicated the Magos had great respect for the Forgemaster.

It was at that time that his vox link to the Inquisitor was reestablished," _It would seem as though Inquisitor Drogan has already come and gone… with an Ultramarine escort. They left not but half an hour ago to where, I know not. I would appreciate any thought on the matter."_

The tech-dreadnought transmitted back," _Stand-by."_

Vernus rotated through various Astra militarum vox channels, making inquiries. His status as an astartes gave him much in the way of pull when it came to getting what he needed to know. Once he had the basic information, he contacted Princeps Aurora,- _Submitting request 324-78A, authorization: BRMF435-TD Arizona Pattern Cherno Alpha *note sub noospheric decryption key*-_

The Princeps was rapid in her reply. - _Request accepted,forwarding requested auspex scans within time scale. Addendum: Any further requests?-_

\- _Not at this time, Omnissiah be with you on your hunt.-_ Vernus shut down the link before cross referencing the data with Graia's city plans.

He reopened his link to Inquisitor Furia and the rest of his fellow Blood Ravens," _Do your augmentics support data exchange?"_

" _They do."_ Replied the Inquisitor.

" _Transmitting data."_ Vernus exited the shelter of the manufactorum and headed for one of its many ingresses.

" _We need to follow them. Bring your Thunderhawk around and contact local Astra Militarum forces and secure an escort."_ Ordered the Inquisitor.

" _Captain Titus of the Ultramarines already commandeered the local Valkyries. Continued deployment of Ork air forces complicates reinforcements. At this time, we are on our own."_ Reported techmarine Xentax.

" _No matter, we must get to Inquisitor Drogan with all haste! Meet me at this rally point."_ Following the Inquisitor's order, a waypoint was synchronized across the squad channel.

Vernus was nearly at said waypoint, having anticipated the Inquisitor's desire for expediency. His sensorium detected the Magos Dominus and several of his huscarl skitarii following him.

Without turning, Vernus addressed the Dominus in binaric," _Forgive my presumption, Dominus, but should your priority not be with your skitarii?"_

The magos returned his cant," _My priority is the securing of Graia. Addendum: My Alpha Primus is of exceptional quality and skill, the xenos will not stand a chance. Conclusion: My capabilities would be better served assisting you and your fellow astartes."_

" _Far be it for me to question the wisdom of a Magos"_ Stated Vernus, tacitly granting his ascent to having the Magos join them, not that he had the authority to refuse anyways.

They arrived at the muster point just as the _Arizona-_ pattern Thunderhawk landed. The Magos and his huscarls boarded the gunship and secured themselves. The Inquisitor and the remainder of his battle brothers arrived. The Inquistor Furia gave a him a look before boarding.

The landing ramp retracted and the Thunderhawk fired its ion engines, one of many features that distinguished it as the _Arizona_ pattern. Vernus activated his anti-grav plates and his own ion engine array. Him and the Thunderhawk took to the skies.

" _The_ Arizona _has sent us updated topographical maps. Use strategem 467-78Y."_ Advised the tech-dreadnought as he flew alongside it.

The strategem was one that requires fine-tuned control over the Thunderhawk's noosphere, control involving a deep connection of the gunship to the pilot similar to how one would connect to a dreadnought. While this would normally have the advantage of control over the weapons, the advantage in terms of flight were minimal… that is with any _other_ pattern of the Thunderhawk gunship. The _Arizona_ pattern had numerous ion maneuvering engines, which gave the gunship greater deftness and maneuvering abilities. This was demonstrated as Xentax flew low to the ground making tight turns through the structures. Any ork flyers that were drawn to them, got killed trying to keep up.

Vernus took his own fast maneuvering route, his own body granting him the ability to grab or spring off obstacles. Soon, leaving behind ruins filled with dead and confused ork flyers, the Thunderhawk and the dreadnought soon were closing in what seemed to be Inquisitor Drogan's lab, when it happened.

A pulse of energy fired from the upcoming point into the Orbital Spire. Vernus' sensorum detected a breach in time space; a warp portal. What was more, smaller warp breaches were opening randomly releasing daemons and Chaos Space Marines. From the peak of the portal by the spire, large transport craft descended. Vernus knew all too well what those contained:

Traitor Engines.


	4. Chapter 4

Guilt weighed heavily upon Captain Titus as well as confusion and uncertainty. Not only had he and his fellow Ultramarines unwittingly created a Chaos incursion, he seemed to have some unexplained resistance to the powers of the Warp. Leandros accusation stung with truth of the codex. He put those thoughts to the side as he refocused to the situation at hand as he gripped his thunder hammer.

After restocking their bolter ammunition, Titus led Leandros and Sidonis into the next combat area on the way to the Astra Militarum muster point. The area was flooded with Chaos forces fiercely embattled with Orks. Two barely intact structures filled with opposing forces shooting at each other and engaging in melee combat at the ground level. Neither side had yet to notice the three Ultramarines, giving them time to assess the proper course of action.

Before they could do anything a boom was heard from above like that of a drop pod. The source of the noise smashed into the ork side, the impact shaking the remains of the structures foundation. The building collapsed into rubble producing a large cloud of dust. The few surviving orks barely had time to recover their senses before long mechanical limbs snatched them up and pulled them into the cloud, followed by a wet crunching sound.

The Chaos forces fired into the cloud. A large red form manifested as the cloud of dust began to settle. The form answered Chaos weapons with fire of its own, sending a hailstorm of assault cannon fire and blasts of plasma cannons. As the massive mechanical form emerged from the dust, Titus had his squad join the battle Sidonus and Leandros supporting him with bolter fire as he charged Chaos positions with his thunder hammer.

He slapped away a khornate bloodletter and fired his plasma pistol into it. Backup fire from his battle brothers finished it off. Another bloodletter charged Titus only to be scooped up in one of the machine's articulated hands. The machine, which bore the icon of the Blood ravens on one shoulder plate and the Adeptus Mechanicus on the other two, swung the lesser daemon up and around, its waist pivoting, and smashed the Daemon into the ground with a sickening crunch.

The machine, which Titus speculated was some rare variant of a dreadnought, used one of it's two left arms to smash through the remaining support of the structure, bringing it down upon the forces inside and stumbling those atop. The dreadnought walked through the debris, executing the survivors.

"Ho, Ancient of the Blood Ravens!" Called Titus.

The dreadnought turned and navigated out of the debris, its digitigrade legs moving with smoothness and grace.

"Well met, Captain Titus of the Ultramarines. I am Vernus, Master of the Forge of the Blood Ravens." Boomed the dreadnought with a startling clarity.

Nearby a red thunderhawk hovered as more Blood Ravens and a strange arachnoid construct disembarked.

"A techmarine in a dreadnought of a chapter known for their astounding lack of compliance to the Codex Astartes and their uncomfortably close ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus." commented Leandros.

The dreadnought turned his head to gaze upon Leandros, his vox caster conveyed a tone of paternal warmth," You are still quite young, son of Guilleman, if the Omnissiah sees fit to grant you years of service then you will learn that the Codex is merely a foundation to be built upon. For all the craftsmanship of its words, it does not account for the every foe. It does not tell you how to beat the Chaos sorcerer and his unknown craft, how to navigate the maze of eldar trickery, how to determine the ideal location to collapse a necron tomb while being assaulted by their self-repairing horde, or even how to face the Dark Mechanicum and their dark genius."

"Our foes are changing and if the Imperium of man and the Adeptus Mechanicus is to survive, we too must adapt." The utter conviction with which the ancient one spoke silenced Leandros.

Another artificial voice spoke, one less clean and clear than Vernus but unquestionably female spoke," Where is Inquisitor Drogan, Captain Titus?"

Inquisitor Furia emerged from behind the dreadnought her red optics glaring accusingly at the Ultramarine.

"From what we were able to ascertain, he was controlled by Chaos. A puppet seized at the latter of his experiment." Said Captain Titus.

"We have had enough of Inquisitors for one day, who are you?" Asked Sidonis.

"Inquisitor Furia of the Ordo Malleus, we came at the behest of Archmagos Veritas, whom was sent by the Adeptus Mechanicus to both assist in repelling the ork invasion and investigate possible dealings with the Dark Mechanicus." Answered the Inquisitor.

"Inquisitor…" Started Leandros," The codex demands that I report that Captain Titus has touched a direct contact with a link to the Warp, the device now on his waist, and I believe he has been tainted by the Warp."

Sindonus turned on Brother Leandros with barely contained rage," You dare charge our Captain with Hersey?"

"No true Space Marine…" Started the Ultramarine.

"SILENCE!" Boomed the dreadnought," You have made your charge to the Inquisitor, now it is upon her to make the judgement."

The Ultramarines went silent and looked to the penetrating gaze of the Inquisitor's augmentic eyes.

"I will be brief, I have seen much in the way of the Warp and who it does and does not affect. There are several things that could possibly account for the Captain's resistance. The first being, as you say, corruption by the warp. In my experience, once the Ruinous Powers find purchase it quickly changes and corrupts."

She turned to look at Sidonus," Sergeant, how long have you known the Captain?"

"Since he was an initiate." Answered the grizzled veteran.

"Has he exhibited any characteristics that are unusual for him." Asked the Inquisitor.

"Short of how he has grown into the role as Captain, no." Said Sidonis.

"Then that rules out corruption and daemonic possession in the obvious sense." Said Inquisitor Furia before proceeding further," The next possibility for your resistance i can immediately rule out because I do not feel uncomfortable around you."

"What relevance does that have?" Asked Leandros, seeming quite impatient.

"Is means our captain is not a psychic blank," Said Sidonis," the complete opposite of a psyker."

While awaiting the Inquisitor to finish her query, Titus noted how the scorpion-like construct, skitarii, and other Blood Ravens had locked down the area.

The Inquisitor wrapped up her thoughts," The last thing I can think of is that you are a simple case of being a latent psyker, probably manifesting in the wake of exposure to Drogan's experiment. All that being said, until we can confirm or deny each of these possibilities, which will not be practical until the present crisis has been resolved, I suggest Sergeant Sidonus carry the device until we rendezvous with the rest of my unit."

Unquestionably, Captain Titus handed the device to Sidonis.

"Now, Forgemaster, what is the next stage of your plan to close that Warp portal?" The Inquisitor asked the tech dreadnought.

"Pardon me, Inquisitor, but our plan was to get the power source to the titan Invictus and supercharge it to fire upon the spire." Announced Titus.

"Invictus was launched nigh an hour ago and is on the verge of engaging Chaos Engines at the base of the spire with the Legio Arizona. Addendum: The Mechanicus does not approve of the spire's destruction, as it is an ancient relic." Said Vernus.

"The portal is growing larger by the minute, the most expedient means of closing it is to destroy the spire." Argued Titus with the dreadnought.

"That which is easy is seldom the best. The Spire draws power from 8 relays, if we destroy of deactivate 3, the power system will overload and the system as a whole will engage safeties and shutdown."

"A sound plan."Said Inquisitor Furia," As expected of a Blood Raven. As tech-dreadnought Vernus says, our targets will be the Spire's relays."

The Inquisitor turned to the Magos Dominus," Magos can your forces hold against Chaos forces while we move against our objective?"

"Yes. It is against the Ruinous Powers for which my Skitarii legion was formed and the Legio Arizona though barely at battle group strength, is up to the task of challenging the traitor war engines." Said the scorpion-like form of the Dominus.

"I recommend we split out forces. Those of us capable of flight ought to split and take one relay while those in the gunship take another and a third group rides the local train to the third target relay." Suggested Vernus.

"Me and my skitarii will take the train." Said the Dominus

"I will take Captain Titus' party and whichever of your Blood Ravens which are not capable of individual flight." Said the Inquisitor.

"Then let us bring the fight to the enemy." Boomed Vernus.

(Near the Orbital Spire, Legio Arizona Warhound-class heavy scout titan Rahna)

Princeps Pattonis had the Rahna unleash fire from its triple Plasma Destructor and the Vulcan Mega bolters, raking the void shields of an traitor Warhound. The power of the triple plasma destructor took out the enemy engine's void shields and the mass reactive rounds punched holes in its twisted plating. The chaos engine screeched in pain. It strafed to a nearby street in a vain effort to escape long enough to recharge its voids.

"You are going nowhere. Moderati senioris, give him a couple of missiles." Ordered the Princeps.

"Yes, my princeps." The moderati sent commands to the titan's third weapon, an Apocalypse Missile launcher. He selected two guided Melta missiles and fed them topographical data and the signature of their target.

"Missiles away." Announced the moderati as the missiles arced upwards then followed the wounded traitor engine. The princeps felt through the Mind Impulse, unit the explosion that followed through Rahna's seismic sensorum.

Princeps Pattonis had the Rahna carefully approach the street of their target. He had the Warhound carefully lean to peer around the corner down the street to peer at their target. They saw flames roiling up from the engines corpse.

"Confirmed kill, my princeps." Said the moderati.

The princeps smiled from his MIU "Excellent, find me ano…."

The cockpit flipped as the titan was thrown off its feet from an explosion. The tech-priest attempted to placate the machine spirit.

"Deploy a servo skull and get eyes on what hit us." ordered Pattonis.

"Yes, my princeps."

The servo skull's sensorum was fed to the titans crew and what they saw threatened to make their blood run cold; a Banelord, a cannon smoking from its vile mouth. It approached, as if to gloat over its prey's helpless state. The Chaos engine brought up its right arm, aiming at Rahna.

The Banelord's void shields flashed as it was hit in the flank. It pivoted left only to have its cockpit smashed by the massive mechanical fist of the Apparatus Gloria. The Banelord shrieked as its demon attempted to seize control of the dying titan. The Apparatus Gloria retracted its fist only to transform its hand into the multi-chamber pattern Volcano cannon. Fired at point-blank range, the volcano cannon gored the enemy engine, the raving screams of the daemon inside giving way to deathly silence as the lifeless corpse of the Banelord toppled backwards.

"Motive fiber units have reached maximum saturation, princeps. We can reright ourselves." Said the Rahna's enginseer.

"Acknowledged. All hands prepare to flip."

Pattonis felt the machine spirit growl and curl under his will, the titan's legs compressed under its body before in an explosion of motion, launched the mass of the titan off its back and briefly into the air. The crew jolted in their harnesses as the princeps reigned in their momentum as the titan's feet briefly struggled to find purchase. Finally, the titan was able to completely arrest its motion.

" _Excellently done, Rahna_." Pattonis heard the sincerity of the complement delivered by the Princeps Sienioris of the Apparatus Gloria.

"I am grateful, Princeps Senioris, for both your compliment and your timely rescue. What are your orders?" Pattonis asked as the Rahna bowed its head in submission to the greater God Machine.

" _Ralches and Gantor are on the verge of getting outmaneuvered in quadrant 674-34C. Assist_." Ordered the Princeps Senioris. The Apparatus Gloria turned to stride to its next targets.

"As you order, Princeps Senioris." Acknowledged Pattonis. As communication with the Gipsy Danger-class titan, the Rahna's Moderati Senioris had already plotted a course to the beleaguered pack. The Princeps had the Warhound break into a sprint.

( Near the Orbital Spire, Apparatus Gloria)

Princeps Aurora and her husband, their minds melded together with the great Machine Spirit of the Apparatus Gloria, observed the battlefield through the titan's augers. A testament to the titan's superior craftsmanship, they could see the outline of traitor engines amidst the buildings. Her husband and coprinceps, Silvius, sighed. Everyone aboard could feel through the titan's noosphere princeps Aurora's glee, knowing what was to come. Everyone, moderati, tech-priest, secutarii, and tributai, all braced.

"Modratii senioris, prepare the right arm for ground-pounder!" Ordered Aurora.

"Yes, my princeps." Said the Moderatii who sat just before the great screen of the conn pod. He activated the titan's power fist function and linked its supercapacitors to the titan's reactor. The incredible power of the reactor rapidly charged the supercapacitors into a high-density. At the same time, power was routed to Supercapacitors in the legs and torso where the god machine' ion engine array waited to be activated.

Her lips curled into a smile as the titan bent at the knees… and with the ecstasy that came with the expression of the machine's pure power, launched into the air. The leap was over several standing ruins and brought the titan's fist right down into an unsuspecting enemy warhound. Under the power of the kinetic impact and being the third point in a three-point landing, rendered the Chaos god machine to little more than a pancake of cursed metal.

The impact also caused a local shockwave among the enemy hereteks and their Omnissiah-damned heavy armor.

" _Shunting heat to feet_." Announced the Gloria's Magos.

With great cunning was the Gloria wrought, though such actions as the one they just performed generated vast swaths of heat, its heat sink technology routed the heat to be dispensed out of its feet and various other points as time and tactics dictated. In this case, in the short time the titan was vulnerable, rebuilding power to move again, so great was the heat dispense that it would kill even an astartes in armor, effectively roasting them alive in their armor.

"Megabolter emplacements firing, my princeps." Said one of the moderati.

"Detecting two enemy Warlords and another Banelord closing in on our position, my princeps." Stated the moderati manning the long-range auspex.

Aurora smiled, this time across their melded thoughts her husband smiled as well.

Silvius gave the order this time," Lock in a firing solution and transmit it to Galganes Armanis, tell him we will need about two apiece."

"Transmitted." Reported the moderati," Acknowledged and received, my princeps. Estimated arrival 47.987 seconds."

" _Motive supercapacitors recharged. Secutarii reports enemy ground force beginning to recover."_ Another report from the titan's magos.

"Shall we greet our guests, my love?" Said Aurora as she looked to her husband.

Silvius rolled his eyes as the two of them rose to their feet and through the MIU, so did Apparatus Gloria. The motion rapidly switched into a leap onto their feet, which tore up rockcrete beneath the titan's treads as the machine broke into a jog.

"Magos, do we have enough power to charge all three primaries?" Asked Silvius as they rapidly closed in on the enemy titan's. The Chaos god machines opened fire upon the rapidly approaching titan but ill-suited to targeting such a fast moving target, their attempts to pin the new titan was laughable.

" _You have the confidence of the Apparatus Gloria, she will give you what you want but in series, not parallel_." Reported the Magos.

"Moderati, charge first the Volcano cannon, then the Plasma hex cannon, followed by the Conversion Beam caster." Ordered Silvius as his wife focused on avoiding fire from the enemy. One of the few downsides to the Gipsy Danger-class was equipped with only six Void shield generators as opposed the the eight aboard a warlord relying on the great maneuvering capabilities and supreme firepower. On the other hand the void shield generators built on the Arizona were of superior craftsmanship so they would not fall as easily as one might think.

A storm of missiles flew towards the Gloria closed within a kilometer of the first warlord. Servitor controlled flak cannons expertly intercepted the missiles, preventing a single one from reaching the void shields. The enemy god machine was a walking defilement of everything the Mechanicus held dear and thus deserved what the Gloria had in mind. Aurora extended her arm transforming the titan's right arm, exposing the powerful volcano cannon once again.

"FIRE!" Yelled Aurora as the machine unleashed the Omnissiah's wrath upon the enemy titan. The Chaos god machine shuddered as the weapon struck its void shields. Several secondary explosion erupted from the Warlord's torso, indicating the detonation of several of the enemy's void shield generators. The second enemy warlord unleashed its own fire upon the Gloria, managing to score a hit on the Loyalist titan.

" _Void shield generators two and seven are inactive, they have been pulled from main power systems so their spirits can be rejuvenated_." Reported the Magos.

Aurora could feel her husband's concern, knowing the titan cannot take many hits like that. The Warlord in front of them was suddenly struck by the missile attack from the Galganes Armanis severing the upper half from the lower as the warlord titan succumbed to its wounds. Before its torso fell entirely, Aurora had the Gloria catch the torso of the enemy titan. The other warlord fired again, this time aiming for Gloria's legs. Omnissiah be praised, it aim was thrown off from its own missile strike. The warlord stumbled but recovered.

"Shunt power from plasma cannon to motive supercapacitors." Ordered Aurora

As the order was carried out, she could feel the Apparatus Gloria's body surge with power like it was her own. Her husband's calculations passed through her mind and the power was routed accordingly to the Gloria's hyperdense muscle strands. The Apparatus Gloria heaved the warlord torso and with a massive step forwards, a shift of the torso, and flex of the arms, the titan hurled the remains of its enemy at the other warlord.

The two collided, the remaining void shields popping under the sheer force of impact. The metal seemed to merge before light filled the auspex of the conn pod.

"If a bit excessive, kill confirmed." Commented the Moderati senioris.

Aurora smiled before she and Silvius simultaneously grimaced as the titan was struck. They redirected their auspex array to spot the Banelord as it rapidly closed in on them.

" _Void shield array down. Enacting cooling and reinitialization rites_." The Magos informed the Princeps over the Gloria's noosphere.

"Route power to motive strands and actuators." Ordered Silvius.

The Gloria spun on its heels to face the Banelord as the Chaos god machine raised its Doomfist to strike at the shieldless titan. The thing about Void shields, they will stop energy weapons, missiles, heavy ballistics, even orbital bombardment to a degree, however something slower like a titan-sized power fist will go right through, a vulnerability the Banelord loved to take advantage of.

Unfortunately for the Banelord, the god machines of the Arizona were better designed and built. Princeps Aurora could could almost feel the shock of the daemon possessed war engine as the Apparatus Gloria caught the Doomfist in one hand and delivered a punch of its own. The blow was only a fraction of what the Gipsy Danger titan was capable of as it was busy routing power to both its motive leg units and void shield generators but it was enough to make the Banelord stagger. The Chaos God machine struggled to remain upright.

"Moderati, is the Conversion Beam Caster fully charged?" Asked Aurora.  
"It is, my princeps." Said the moderati senioris.

"Get ready to anchor feet." Ordered Silvius as the two princeps had the titans torso to face the Banelord. The chaos engine was beginning to recover and bring its weapons to bear.

"Magos lock leg joints. Moderati senioris, the trigger is yours." Ordered Princeps Aurora.

" _Standby_." Said the Moderati as a targeting reticle appeared on his display. Numerous runes scrolled about as it narrowed. The Banelord was about to fire in turn.

"Firing!" The Gloria's chest weapon spewed its wrath.

A circular area on the enemy titan's body began to glow before detonating. Alarms screamed as the Loyalist titan began to fall backwards from the blast.

"ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Screamed Silvius through the noosphere.

The rockcrete structures in the vicinity heaved before what remained of them was rendered to rubble under the shockwave of the titans fall.

"Magos, status report." Ordered Silvius as his harness had absorbed a large part of the impact.

" _Conversion Beam Caster inoperable. Void shields 3, 5, and 6 are now ready to power up_." Reported the Magos over the noosphere.

"That's it?" Asked Aurora surprised at the lack of significant damage.

" _If the Omnissiah blessed this God machine to drop from orbit, a simple fall is not going to do much_." Reported the Magos.

"Thank the Omnissiah, do we have power to motive units?" Asked Aurora.

" _Power is yours, Princeps."_ Said the Magos.

With silent jubilation, the titan, under its own power, rose to its feet to bring further vengeance on the enemies of the Omnissiah.

( Power relay substation 11-23a)

Vernus and three of his fellow Blood Ravens landed close to the entrance to the relay shrine. Long before he landed, his auspex detected the sound of arc and radium weapons fire. Vernus launched a servo skull to assess the skirmish. He saw skitarii fighting skitarii. The lines at first seemed clearly drawn, then he observed several skitarii change allegiances and fire on their comrades, others would suddenly seize up, and others still would suddenly have smoke curl up and fall from overheated augmentics.

He could only conclude that this was not the true battle, the battle was one of the noosphere.  
The Forgemaster emerged from behind the cover of the buildings, his feet stomping quickly as approached a skitarii Primus and pinned him onto his face. With fire from enemy skitarii pelting his frame harmlessly, the Forgemaster extended a mechadendrite and inserted it into one of the Primus' back sockets. He was immediately assaulted by scrapcode but he and his machine spirit were ready for it as the scrapcode was torn apart by layers of firewalls and adaptive, anti-virus programs.

Vernus analyzed the noospheric combatants. All participants were at the very least Magi and it seemed many against one. As the many were the ones using the heretical scrapcode, it was against them that Vernus leveled his attacks. He applied his will and working in tandem with his machine spirit which roared across the noosphere, the Forgemaster blew the magi's paltry defenses and tapped directly into their minds. He fabricated a repository and downloaded the entirety of their knowledge and left behind a worm virus of his own making. The virus left the offending magi as nothing but empty husks.

It had happened in mere nanoseconds, the skitarii had ceased fighting and now stood firmly under the Blood Raven's control.

As one the skitarii, turned their weapons upon the massive transformer shrine and unleashed their fire upon it. The shrine sparked and arced under the disruptive galvanic energy. Its machine spirit shrieked before falling silent.

It was then through the noosphere that the Forgemaster had seized that he received a communique from the one Magos that was under attack. The identifier greatly interested Vernus, it was the Fabricator-General of Graia, Archmagos Haydentrite Sameleus. It answered many questions and produced several more.

" _You are a question_." Stated the Archmagos through the noosphere," _You self-identify as an Astartes Master of the Forge, you wield the Noosphere better than and servant of the Omnissiah, and if I was to speculate, you are interred into a blessed dreadnought of a pattern I am not familiar with. Who are you to have all this?"_  
The Forgemaster felt no inclination to indulge in the Archmagos' question," _I am here to save this loyal world of the Adeptus Mechanicus, from the clutches of both the traitor legions and the Dark Mechanicus of which you seem not to be the perpetrator but rather the victim. If you are one of the faithful, share what you know."_

 _"The Ork invasion, the appearance of the Ruinous powers, and even the Chaos engines are but a distraction and a trap_." Said the Archmagos.

 _"For who_?" Asked Vernus.  
 _"It is an astartes chapter of which there are no records. They are called the Grey Knights."_ Said the Archmagos.

That revelation suddenly made everything fall into place. As the power system overloaded and disengaged power to the Spire, the Warp portal began to collapse but it only made Vernus' sense of dread grow.


	5. Chapter 5

(Graia forge ring)

In the soundless vacuum of the void, the magnetic footpads of the dreadnought's feet activated and deactivated with every step on the ring. As he transversed the outside, he monitored several noospheres. He tracked his battle brothers as they moved in the station accompanied by Magos Fenstricus in his combat form and his cohort of skitarii. The Ark Mechanicus _Arizona_ had taken up position close to the ring, transport ships ferrying fresh skitarii legions to the station and returning injured, damaged, or salvaged parts of skitarii.

Inquisitor Furia had the Ultramarines accompany her back to her strike cruiser where the warp-based power source was sealed for further study. Little doubt she would be arguing jurisdiction with the Ordo Hereticus, who would predictably argue for the device's destruction, whereas her rebuttal would likely be the method for safe disposal via the Grey Knights. Of course, in order for her argument to hold any weight she needed to be backed by Grey Knights. That mission was entrusted to him and his Blood Ravens as the Ultramarines were not permitted to know of their existence.

With the aid of Graia's Fabricator-General, The techmarine dreadnought was granted the knowledge of internal layout of the ring station. As Magos Fenstricus' forces and his battle brothers were moving, the map was proving accurate but it was taken with a note of caution using servoskull to verify the data whenever battle permitted. Their foe was initially just cohorts of Dark Mechanicus skitarii but soon there were Chaos worshipping cultists in the mix. It was clearly a delaying tactic. His part in the plan was infiltration, an ironic position for a dreadnought but such tactics were commonplace for his chapter.

He followed the noosphere of the station, he closed in on the familiar presence that was the Grey Knight's Master of the Forge. He sensed the secure vox array being probed and attacked by scrapcode however the complex coding resisted all points of entry. He soon stood directly over the position of Techmarine Prodromos. He walked past it to an airlock that would barely fit him. He extended a mechadendrite into a port near the airlock. He purified the terminal of scapcode and healed the lock's machine spirit.

The door opened and Vernus squeezed his bulk inside. The lock cycled and pressurized, releasing the dreadnought into the broad corridors. Recalling his distant training from his time as a scout, the dreadnought carefully placed his steps as he moved through the empty corridor. He deployed several servo-skulls to scout around. Remarkably, in spite of his size, Vernus was able to walk silently, the precision of his leg bundles enabling him.

His auspex cycled through different visual frequencies until he found one that allowed him to see through the walls into the adjoining chamber. He saw two distinct forms one was smaller and appeared to be lying down and the other larger standing near the first. Too small to be any of the traitor astartes, Venus could only speculate it was a Dark Mechanicu heretek. The question was how to disable the heretek, as he could not be certain if the heretek's brain was even in his head any more. So that meant disabling him via digitally.

As the Omnissiah's Will would have it, a traitor servo-skull rounded a corner and approached his position. Vernus commanded one of his own servo-skulls to slip behind the traitors and interfaced with it. In a tidal attack upon the skull, Venus simultaneously cut it off from it's network, purged it of scrapcode, and seized control. In a compressed ritual, a machine spirit was born in that cursed skull. He would rectify its body later but for what he intended, it would do well.

He stood out of sight as the doors to the chamber opened and the captured servo-skull floated lazily in. A burst of scrapcode was emitted from the heretek as he observed the skull. He extended an arm to receive the skull as a trainer received a tame avian predator. He never suspected a thing until the skull interfaced with him. Through the skull, the dreadnought unleashed the Omnissiah's hexamatic wrath into the warp-cursed systems of the heretek.

Unable to utter so much as a sound of burst of alarm, the heretek collapsed. The Forgemaster's machine spirit was left to systemically purge the heretek of scrapcode and possibly extract useful information. With the heretek taken care of, Vernus beheld the scene before him. The Grey Knight Master of the Forge had been completely dismembered and his lower body had been surgically removed. His organs were attached to foul cables, clearly intending to corrupt the body of the Grey knight, though burned out piles indicated a lack of progress in that area. There was very little skin on what remained of Prodromos, his eyes, jaw and tongue removed.

It was a terrible fate and the swiftness they were able to render the Grey Knight to this stirred Vernus' reactor. He examined the remarkably still-living Master of the Forge until he found a port. It was scorched from doubtlessly many attempt to interface with him. Vernus extended an interface cable of his own. He encountered a coded firewall composed of holy runes. Vernus spun a web of his own, calling upon many aspects of the obscure lore of the Omnissiah.

Prodromos sent a ping with compressed question. When Vernus answered, the firewall systemically came down and the Forgemaster was greeted with pained relief.

" _Thank the Omnissiah, you came."_ Said Prodromos through their link," _You must hurry, my brothers are caught in a web with a worse fate than mine planned for them."_

The Forgemaster simply acknowledged with a ping. It as at that time that his fellow Blood Ravens entered the area as Magos Fenstricus' forces was able to press their advantage. Venus indicated to the accompanying servitors to gather up the Grey Knight's Aegis armor which apparently was being studied by the heretek, and place it into a sealed crate.

" _I have a request."_ Started Prodromos as his form was surrounded by the arrival of several medicae servitors with experience in Astartes anatomy," _I desire you to remake me into a dreadnought. I cannot go to the Dead Fields with this humiliation. I will support my brothers as you support yours: from the chassis of a techmarine dreadnought."_

Vernus pulled up a file from deep in his memory, a device deep from the Librarium of the _Omnis Arcanum,_ passed from one Master of the Forge to the next, it's origins shrouded in as much mystery as the Blood Raven's themselves. It was device that enabled the creation of librarian dreadnoughts, something he was planning on implementing for his own chapter, now that he had the knowledge on how to construct dreadnoughts. The device was simply called _Osiron._ He shared it with his fellow Master of the Forge.

He was greeted by silence for a time before Prodromos sent a file of his own with a disclaimer that the Ordo Malleus must approve before it is used. He placed the file in the processing queue for his machine spirit and the Index of Understanding. He had a servo-skull attach to the Grey Knight Techmarine to record his formal request and his reasoning. Prodromos was soon sealed in a stasis pod which was conducted away from the battle back to his strike cruiser.

He looked over his fellow battle brothers, whom waited expectantly for him.

"Tactical Imperative 1167-BH6, operate as if the enemy already knows we are coming. Partial analysis of the heretek's mind indicates we are up against at the very least Thousand Sons." Vernus drew upon his considerable experience," We are likely to expect Chaos Sorcerers and Rubric Marines. For the Rubrics, aim for their limbs as headshots will not kill. For sorcerers, they can pierce the veil of time and see into the future, they are likely peering in on this conversation. To that end we need to hit them with tactics they cannot reasonably counter."

"Like a flood of skitarii?" Came the suggestion from Magos Fenstricus Combat Frame.

"Is that doable?" Asked Brother-sergeant Dexian Vale.

"Casualties will be heavy but worth the prevention of this station's takeover." Said the Magos.

"Would it be possible to acquire archaic energy weapons?" Asked Vernus.

The arachnoid form of the Magos moved sideways as several cargo servitors, their torsos sitting at the heads of cargo-laden, tracked platforms.

"Our concordance is 84.34825% in alignment with yours. You need was anticipated. Addendum: I bear gifts from both the Servants of the Omnissiah and the Iron Hands Chapter." Announced Fenstricus.

The Servitors rotated and systemically unloaded and distributed weapons.

"A cognis lascannon, blessed by Archmagos Pentateux Gentrical." Started the Magos," An ancient plasma rifle named Crux Immolator, a veteran weapon of 317 campaigns. Twin plasma cannons Zerach Alpha and Beta, the odd heavy weapons machine spirits were intertwined in will and purpose, those who separated them bore their ire. A Multi-melta that has been borne by 13 battle servitors, its desire to destroy overwhelmed their cogitators."

"To you, Techmarine Xentax, I bestow the Omnissian Power axe of Magos Dominus Nerian Tenclus. It is a weapon rich with the desire to repair as well as destroy and will serve you well in equal measure." The Dominus finally turned to the dreadnought," Gifted to you from the Iron Fathers of the Iron Hands chapter, I present to you a dreadnought variant of the Volkite Culverin."

Each of the Blood Ravens took up their new weapons, some replacing them with their old ones, others mounting their other weapons on their backs or hip mounts respectively. Vernus extended one of his thicker servo ams from his back and quickly went about installing the new weapon in place of the servo-manipulator. The power feeds checked out and he reprioritized his machine spirit to sing in parallel to the weapon's machine spirit. The process did not take very long as the weapon was folded neatly on his back.

The servitors departed, some empty, some bearing the heavy bolters and packs of the assault marines, some bearing the bolter rifles of the tactical marines.

"Let us proceed. Time is short. You know the plan." Started the dreadnought before opening up his vox caster, his resonating voice shaking the area around them as he called out," For the Emperor and the Omnissiah! Knowledge is Power..."

"GUARD IT WELL!" His fellow Blood Ravens echoed.

(Graia Forge Ring, room of ritual)

He saw them… Blood Ravens. Even though his Tzeench-blessed gaze could pierce the veil of time, their presence was still unexpected. He struggled to contain his rage as his cultists even his Rubric marines were struggling against forces of the Mechanicus and their tech-guard. The Thousand Sons' sorcerer had been part of the legion for nigh five hundred years and since first hearing about them, he had long planned and plotted to get his hands on some of the supposedly incorruptible Grey Knights. He laid subtle hints in time, drawing them to him to this moment but just when it seemed that his triumph was assured, his frustrations began.

First was the fact that the Grey Knight's practiced Aegis field was maintained even when stripped of their armor, anchoring them to the Materium. How annoying. Then came the arrival of the strange Ark Mechanicus a vessel that just felt _wrong_ , though he could not place why. Then came the Blood Ravens led by a dreadnought of unknown pattern or design. The dreadnought was another major headache for its very shell seemed to resist his attempts to pierce its mind. Every time he tried to reach for the skeins of time towards the dreadnought, it would be ripped from his grasp. There were few forces in existence that could do that. he remembered in passing that the Blood Ravens did from time to time fight besides the Aeldari…

His musings were interrupted by a push... strike that… breach in his lines. The accursed Skitarii were coordinating strikes backed by robots. Most of his forces were committed on the surface of Graia, Chaos about the battlefield but to his frustration, Nemeroth interfered with his forces as much as they interfered with the Imperium's. He began the ritual to summon two maulerfiends from the battlefield below to deal with the dreadnought.

It was in the middle of said ritual that the main doors to the exceedingly spacious chamber blew inward with loyalist skitarii forces flooding into the chamber against the waiting tide of cultists and Dark Skitarii firing from the upper levels. The Rubric marines formed a protective barrier in front of the sorcerer and opened fire into the crowd of skitarii at the same time additional cultists entered the chamber shouting, muttering screaming as they ran down the narrow stair to join the fray.

The massive forms of the maulerfiends materialized. The multi-limbed warp constructs roared and unbidden leaped over the Rubrics down nearly two stories to land on the deck and charge into the fray, massacring cultist and skitarii alike. Imperial guardsmen would have fled or lost their minds, but another frustration for the sorcerer was the fact that the only response he garnered was their fire.

Then he saw it, the Blood Raven Dreadnought, it was taller than any dreadnought he had ever seen. It swayed as it stepped through the tech guard which parted prior to every step. The sorcerer directed the wrath of the chaos engines to the form which they were built to destroy. The constructs plowed through the skitarii, encircling the dreadnought to catch it in a basic pincer maneuver.

To the utter surprise of the sorcerer and by the extension of the Maulerfieds, the dreadnought leaped. The two chaos engines crashed into each other their wrath suddenly flaring against each other. Before the sorcerer could reign in and redirect their focus back at their target, his foresight warned him of various projectiles. Not but seconds later the dreadnought landed on the necks of the fiends digging his articulated lightning claws into them. The dreadnought simultaneously launched a swath of missile from his shoulder launchers right at him.

The fiends attempted to claw at the dreadnought but its unexpected agility allowed the sarcophagus to dance on their backs making them attack each other. The servo-arms of the dreadnought seized each of the secondary appendages emerging from the back of the warp constructs and ripping them out.

The sorcerer reached out with the Warp to grab the missiles. A scorpion-like form dropped from the ceiling behind him accompanied by the forms of several Skitarii rustalkers. He brought the missiles around to hurl them at the Mechanicus forces. Just as he had the missile fly by himself, they suddenly exploded, throwing the sorcerer back against the resolute wall of Rubric marines. The sorcerer rolled out of the way to avoid the claws of the machine.

The scorpion was fast, its claws crackling with the energy of a lethal power field, lunged towards him. He spun out of the way only for the claws to seize one of the Rubrics and scythe the armor in two. The Thousand sons sorcerer hurled warp lightening at the machine only to hit a particularly powerful refractor field. His arm exploded in a mist of gore as a heavy stubber built into the constructs tail fired upon him with lethal accuracy.

In spite of his pain, the sorcerer called upon one of the regenerative gifts of Tzeench. His thoughts suddenly came to a horrible realization, why were the ruststalkers not attacking? His answer came when he spared a glance over to where the Grey Knights were being held and he could do little as the Skitarii cleaved through the bindings, freeing the warriors of the Ordo Malleus.

So much is going awry… all of his planning… looking at every angle of the skeins of time… he looked a again and was met with the mental image of a metallic, skeletal face with a single green eye. It deliberately blocked him.

 _A Necron?! How..?_

The whole wall of Rubric marines was rapidly reduced to piles of warped metal. He saw the dreadnought holding in one of his three arms a massive rotary weapon, the torn remains of the maulerfiends lay lifeless at his feet. The cultists were all dead, he was surrounded. He had no choice. The sorcerer activated a pre-readied spell and vanished back into the warp.

"My thanks, Magos Dominus for our rescue." Said the Grey Knight Justicar.

"It was my pleasure to aid the military arm of the Ordo Malleus, however, this would not have been possible without the Forgemaster."

The Justicar nodded as he watched with fascination as the dreadnought climbed up to their level, the agility and range of movement beyond any dreadnought he had ever seen. He looked to the Magos and nodded again, tacitly implying that the conversation that was to pass between the Grey Knights and the Blood Ravens was not for his audio receptors. The Dominus' war-form bowed and lead his ruststalkers away to resume cleansing the forge ring.

A servo-skull detached from a receptacle on the dreadnought's back and extended a data probe to connect with the Justicar. The Grey Knight allowed it. Through it, he received Master of the Forge Prodromos' recorded request. The Justicar deleted the data from the servo skull before sending it back to its owner.

"This is unprecedented." Said Justicar Styer.

"As were the conditions I found him in." Said the Forgemaster.

"I gather you already have thoughts as to how to go about it?" Asked Styer.

"I have." Answered the dreadnought.

"You do realize the complicated nature of this request." Said the Grey Knight.

The Forgemaster spoke with understanding born of his years," If you approve, I will forge him anew, after all this never happened and you were never here."

The Blood Ravens knew how to keep secrets, not to mention their accumulated knowledge often bore fruit for the Inquisition when they looked past the chapter's shortcomings. Prodromos spoke highly of the Forgemaster's skills when he was the Master of the Forge. There was no doubt that no other was more well-versed in dreadnought lore in the 41st millenium.

"You will use our forges…" Started Styer.

"There are resources aboard the Ark Mechanicus _Arizona_ that are necessary for my work. They can be transferred and inspected. However, there remains a matter to be settled before the departure." Said the dreadnought as he received a data exload from Archmagos Veritas.

"Nemeroth." Agreed Styer.

(Graia, Orbital Spire.)

Captain Titus sent three Chaos Space Marine careening over the ledge with a broad and rapid sweep of his thunder hammer. Each stroke was driven by his controlled fury, Sidonis' death was his responsibility and he intended to collect the debt from Nemeroth with interest. Mechanicus forces guarded Sidonis body, freeing up Leonidas to accompany him and provide him with covering fire. Bolter rounds splashed against the refractor field projected by his Iron Halo. He noted the fuel gauge projected in his mind's eye through his black carapace. There was enough fuel for about six more short jumps or two long ones. He was about to ignite the pack when a stream of bolter fire tore through the Chaos forces like wet tissue paper.

Titus turned to see the Forgemaster, tall and resplendent unleashing his own fury upon the traitor forces, accompanied by astartes in grey or silvery plating with the icon of the Inquisition emblazoned on their warplate. They bore Force weapons of patterns he did not recognize and engaged the traitor forces at range with storm bolters mounted on the wrists of their armor and startlingly psychic attacks as well. Leonidas eyed them with great suspicion but continued his cover fire regardless. Bloodletters charged the new arrivals only for the grey astartes and the dreadnought to dispatch them with practiced and coordinated ease.

Once quiet had descended over the area, Titus and Leonidas joined the newcomers.

"I thought you were in orbit?" Asked Titus.

"Objectives complete. Teleporters on the Forge ring." The Forgemaster stated plainly.

"Who are these Astartes?" Leonidas spoke with a barely restrained snarl.

"Peace, young one." Spoke the dreadnought," They are long-standing wards of the Inquisition. That is all you need to know. The less you know the less they strip from your mind or lessen the reason to execute you outright. They have that authority."

Leonidas' brows furrowed but he said no more.

"Take point, Captain." Said one of the Grey Knights.

"In that case, provide cover while I wreak vengeance upon their ranks." Titus declared.

The Grey Knights nodded in Vernus' direction. The dreadnought heaved and spun up his assault cannon as his anti-personnel rounds were chambered.

With that the impromptu squad, charged forth. As Traitor astartes and Daemon alike made their presence known, they were accordingly purged under the hammer, sword, bolter, lascannon, plasma cannon, power first and lightening claw. Leonidas and the Grey Knights followed up Titus' jump jet strikes with coordinated bolter fire. The tech-dreadnought brought up the rear covering their flanks with his variety of weapons but holding back on some of his heavier weapons such as his krack missiles and Volkite Culverin, which remain firmly folded on his back.

They emerged onto the top of the spire, Nemeroth was obviously attempting to use the power source as an offering for his ascent to daemonhood. Though standing between them and the Chaos sorcerer was a score of traitor astartes, Bloodletters, and a pair of Defliers.

Without any hesitation, Vernus charged the defilers. The daemon engines fired their chest mounted, hell-forged battle cannons at the dreadnought. Vernus demonstrated his body's superior agility and maneuverability by side-stepping around the blast zones.

Using his engines, the tech-dreadnought leaped into the air. His ascent was arrested when one of the defilers seized one of his legs in one of its claws and slammed his body face down into the ground. Vernus' flesh shook in its amniotic cradle. Vernus rotated his body completely around the waist axle and fired his combi-assault cannon's lascannon right at the shoulder joint of the arm that was holding him.

Not only did the lascannon blast sever the arm but the two legs behind mounted on the lower chassis of the vile construct. The Defiler screeched as it toppled to one side. Vernus made his chassis do an awkward backwards handspring aided by his ion engines in short bursts, rotating his waist back to its original position, as the other defiler attempted to plow aside the damaged one to get at him. He unleashed a storm of Krak missiles at the defiler, homing in on the hellish weapons on either side of its body and its tiny head. The resulting explosions rendered the defiler blind, an inhuman screech emerging from its hell-forged chassis.

Vernus shoved the blinded defiler's battle cannon to aim at the other defiler. When it fired blindly at point-blank range, the battle cannon destroyed its unintended target. Vernus backed out of range of its claws as they attempted to scramble for him. Vernus went behind the Defiler and climbed onto its lower torso and seized the back of its head, holding it in place as its neck joint wailed in protest. His Volkite Culverin came online, the servo arm on which it was mounted unfolded from his back and came over his shoulder to aim down into the sparking hole in the defiler where there was once its head. The dual barrels of the thermal ray weapon erupted, pouring into the defiler and rendering its warp-cursed innards to molten ruin.

It was as the Forgemaster ended the last of the warp engines, that the Grey Knights and the Ultramarine Captain Titus ended Nemeroth. The Warriors of the Ordo Malleus had telekinetically held the Chaos sorcerer while, Titus delivered a fatal blow to the half-transformed traitor's head. As he approached them, Justicar Styer placed the power source back into its container.  
"That needs to be destroyed." Captain Titus objected.

The Justicar ignored Titus as he approached Vernus," Summon your Thunderhawk."

Vernus nodded his head in acknowledgement. He accessed his vox and gave his location once more to his battle brothers.

The Grey Knight's librarian was swift and thorough with the expunging Leandros' memories of them and he was conducted by to his chapter by the Magos Fenstricus. Titus was being vouched for by Inquisitor Furia and Justicar Styer. Tech-dreadnought Forgemaster returned to Ark _Arizona_ to get everything he needed to accompany the Grey Knight back to their chapter homeworld to construct a tech-dreadnought frame for their Master of the Forge.

His Battle-Brothers would remain behind as would his forge. He had transferred to the Grey Knight's ship a partially complete _Crimson Typhoon_ -pattern tech-dreadnought, processed lorelei crystals, and unprocessed blackstone. Everything else would be addressed at the Grey Knight forge.

Arch-Magos Veritas found the Forgemaster standing before the Imperator Titan hanging from its chains. The tech-dreadnought had several mechadendrites connected to the titan. Several other techpriests were communing with the titan in parallel with the Forgemaster, even the FabricatorLocum was joined with them. They stood as still as statues while the Arch-Magos waited patiently.

When they all moved once more, the noosphere became active with the discussion of what had transpired. Together the Forgemaster and the Fabricator-Locum turned to him.

"A design for the titan's completion has been settled upon." Said the dreadnought, his voice booming as if in declaration.

The Fabricator-Locum extended a mechadendrite, which the Arch-magos accordingly connected to. Upon examining the data, he retracted the data-probe and nodded.  
He opened his vox and declared in binaric," Let it be done!"

With that declaration, the chamber exploded into cants of construction and rites of the forge. Manufactorums spun up and forges roared as the Ark moved forth to take into its womb a new form.

The small group of Blood Ravens gathered in their allotted hangar in the Ark to see off the ancient. The deck shook as the ancient walked through the cargo doors, his magnificent form walked by them as they bowed their heads in respect. At the end of the two flanking rows of his battle brothers was Arch-Magos Veritas and Sergeant Vale. The Forgemaster had brief exchange with the Archmagos in blurts of binaric before turning to the Sergeant.

"Sergeant, Graia has many secrets, all of you are to begin the process of investigating them. All artifacts of relevance are to be handed over to Archmagos Veritas or any of the magi of the _Arizona_. Those on the planet are highly suspect and are to be treated as such unless they are cleared by the forces of the _Collegis Extremis_. You have also been granted the authority to copy all knowledge you find to conduct back to our chapter as long as all originals over to the Archmagos. This is to take place until I either return or our 15 years is up. If said time expires before I return, Archmagos Veritas will arrange transport to the nearest group of our Chapter. Are my instructions clear?" The dreadnoughts voice was easily heard by the few of his battle brothers that were there.  
"Yes Forgemaster." Said Sergeant Vale. His voice bore the weight of conviction of the orders dispensed to him.

The tech-dreadnought rotated on a foot to face his brothers. His booming voice took on a softer tone," Take care of each other. I will return."  
As the dreadnought walked to the edge of the field that separated him from the airless void a clamor rang out from his battle-brothers.  
"FOR THE EMPEROR…" Rang out Sergeant Vale

"FOR THE UNKNOWN PRIMARCH... " continued Brother Neihlem

 _Wait…_ thought the dreadnought… _that phrasing…_

"AND FOR THE FORGEMASTER!" Said all his Battle-brothers.

 _So that is how it is…_ Thought the Forgemaster. Without needing to be bidden, seamless in thought and action, the Forgemaster's ion engines fired, lifting his heavy body from the deck. He rocketed through the shield towards the Grey Knight ship. As he left them behind he thought about what was behind him and what was before him. Deep inside his amniotic tank, the muscles in his jaw slowly moved and…

...he smiled.

 **This is a list of all the Blood Ravens at Graia.**

 **Tech-dreadnought Vernus, the Forgemaster**

 **Techmarine Xentax**

 **Techmarine acolyte Chelpanus**

 **Techmarine acolyte Adjuctus**

 **Acolyte Apothecary Incus**

 **Sergeant Dexian Vale**

 **Brother Harknus, devastator marine**

 **Brother Ucledies, devastator marine**

 **Brother Erebus, tactical marine**

 **Brother Petricus, tactical sniper**

 **Brother Neihlem, assault marine**

 **Brother Belicus, assault marine**


End file.
